Some of the most wonderful flute music was penned by composers who are or might have been members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Explore their works with joy!
Roderick Seed: Mastering the Flute with William Bennett
Roderick Seed has done the most thorough job of separating all the various and wonderful teaching points made by William Bennett, approaching them in a sensible order and explaining them intelligently. He has successfully used his personal experience of studying with Wibb to enhance the original material. There is something here for every flute player and the book is nothing short of masterful! Difficulty Guide: 6-9
Frederick the Great: Sonata in B flat Major Spitta No 76 for Flute and Continuo
The works of Frederick the Great are often underrated which is strange. This sonata is a joy to play. The opening Largo is stately and very sad. It opens in the unexpected key of B flat minor and, sensitively played, it can be a real tear-jerker. The two fast movements are much happier and written with simple rhythms and a great deal of energy. If you have never played any of Frederick’s works this a great place to start! Difficulty Guide: 7
Ethel Smyth: Two Interlinked Melodies for Flute, Oboe and Piano
A playful Ethel Smyth melody is interspersed with something sadder in this lovely if slightly quirky piece. There is plenty of variety in the scoring with all instrumental variations covered, adding texture as well as colour to the two principal tunes. This is simple music at its best! Difficulty Guide: 7
Aaron Copland: Duo for Flute and Piano
This wonderful work by Aaron Copland is unmistakably American in outlook. The opening movement, Flowing, is lonely and expansive with evocative flute writing and subtle accompaniment. The mournfulness of the Poetic slow movement feels really quite bleak but with moments of hope and passion, and the closing Lively is a quirky rodeo-type dance. The angular rhythms and harmonies so typical of Copland’s larger works are here in abundance to make this an unusual and important work in the flute repertoire. Not easy but so worth the effort! Difficulty Guide: 9
Jennifer Higdon: Rapid Fire for Solo Flute
Rapid Fire is a real tour-de-force, requiring advanced technical skills and a great deal of stamina. Jennifer Higdon is a flute player so she knows what’s possible on the instrument, and here she really expands and challenges those skills. It is relentless in it’s pursuit of exciting colours, bravura changes of texture and intensity of direction. If you can play it ‘brutal and raucous’ to the end you will have played brilliantly! Difficulty Guide: 9
A selection of works for flute by other composers who are or might have been LGBTQIA+:
Lowell Liebermann, Gary Schocker, Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Francis Poulenc, Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Griffes, Camille Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Frederic Chopin, Jean Baptiste Lully, Laura Zucker, Eva Beglarian, Agnes Zimmerman,