Hope this message finds you well. I am visiting your beautiful country in June for a week and would like to bring back flute music to play, as well as for my flute teacher and the flute choir she manages.
Please, if you would be so kind, share any and all of your favourite pieces for flute, ranging from solo (unaccompanied) all the way to full flute choir arrangements or compositions – flute(s) with accompaniment, duets, trios, quartets, and quintets are also especially appreciated! Our members range from emerging flutists to students who have pursued a masters degree in flute performance, so please don’t hold back the pieces you love.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Nick, from Canada
PS Here is one of my favourite flute choir pieces:
I have lots of favourite Irish tunes rather than any favourite “pieces” for the flute (which sounds like a classical thing). Irish flute playing is usual done with other instruments in a pub or private session not usually with large groups of other flute players. There are lots of recordings of flute players on youtube both solo and with other instruments, my favourite combination is flute and fiddle. Have a look for Shannon Heaton - https://www.youtube.com/@ShannonHeatonMusic and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBgNicF6tU2yX0QV-whW8NuRRuVeAjuC
I only usually hear flute played at sessions, mostly in pubs. I found you some footage of one with an unusual number of flutes – I haven’t been there, but the setting is fairly typical.
We usually only have one flute at our local sessions, occasionally two. Both play simple system (so with no keys) D flutes.
Is it Ireland you’re visiting? The membership here’s spread around the world, so I’m not sure. Anyway, if you do visit sessions and hear a tune you like, ask what the name is. People will be happy to tell you if they know – you then can look up the notation on thesession.org It might be played in a set with several other tunes, so the question’s often “What was that second one?”
As Gromit says, there aren’t really separate flute tunes. Most are also played on fiddle, pipes, mandolin, accordion, whistle, banjo…even lever harp occasionally, though it’s not the ideal instrument for busy pubs.
