An important project for this site is to upload as much out-of-copyright music, for flageolets, as possible. If you have any, please do contact me as I would be delighted to digitalise any scans of music offered. Also, have a look at the Discography for CDs which include flageolets.
| Title | Composer | Date | Instrumentation | PDF | Details |
|---|
| A Choice Collection of 20 Airs | Bernard Lee | c.1821 | Solo Double Flageolet | Full Work Individual Pieces | Separate Page |
| Méthod Compléte de Flageolet | Jules Gard | c.1800 | Solo and Duo French Flageolets | Full Work Individual Pieces | Separate Page |
| National Melodies, Volume 1 | James Bond | c.1815 | Solo English Flageolet | Full Work Individual Pieces | Separate Page |
| The Parisian Divertimento | John Parry | c.1830 | Double or English Flageolet and Piano | Yes | Below |
| Break of Morn in the Forest: Polka | Bonnisseau | c.1870 | French Flageolet and Piano | Yes | Below |
| Les Chasseurs Écossais | Louis Levasseur | c.1840 | Quadrille Band | Yes | Below |
| Keel Row | Bonnisseau | 1877 | French Flageolet and Piano | Yes | Below |
| The Bird In Yonder Cage Confined | Domenico Corri and Thomas Dibdin | 1802 | English (or Bird) Flageolet, Voice and Piano | Yes | Below |
| Ah! Little Blind Boy | Michael Kelly | c. 1809 | English Flageolet, Voice and Piano | Yes | Below |
| Caprices 1, 2 and 3 (From “12 Grand Caprices”) | Narcisse Bousquet | c.1851 | Solo French Flageolet | Yes | Below |
| Study | John Egan | c.1830 | Solo Double Flageolet | Yes | Below |
| Divertimento | John Parry | c.1830 | Solo Double Flageolet | Yes | Below |
| Vauderville | Marin Mersenne | 1636 | French Flageolet Consort | Yes | Below |
| March, March, Etrick and Tevoit Dale | Braham arr. Simpson | c.1830 | Solo English Flageolet | Yes | Below |
A Choice Collection of 20 Airs for Double Flageolet by Bernard Lee
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file).
This work is a small collection of short, unaccompanied pieces for the Double Flageolet.
Méthod Compléte de Flageolet for French Flageolet by Jules Gard
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file). If you would like you may also download the full document (with the introduction and fingering charts), although please beware that this is a little over 3 Megabytes in size.
This tutor consists of nine Exercises, four Preludes, 36 Solos and six Duets for the French flageolet, presented in a transposed form. The introductions, in French and English, are also available on this site.
The Parisian Divertimento by John Parry
Click for the score or parts for single or double English flageolets in pdf format; a midi file of the piece for double or single flageolet or the full score as a Sibelius file.
The Parisian Divertimento is a substantial piece in two movements by one of the great double-flageolet players, John Parry. Two flageolet parts exist; one for the single English flageolet and the other for the double flageolet. The piece requires quite a high level of technical skill to perform and gives an insight into the music which John Parry played to popularise the instrument.
Break of Morn in the Forest by Bonnisseau
Click for the score and parts as a pdf.
Break of Morn in the Forest is a introduction and polka for French flageolet and piano. It uses the entire range of the instrument (down to low G played with a finger in the bell) and is quite challenging, with its repeated, staccato triplets.
Les Chasseurs Écossais by Louis Levasseur
Click for the score and parts as a pdf.
Les Chasseurs Écossais is a Quadrille set for a small Quadrille Band (Flageolet, Flute, Cornet, Violin and Piano).
Keel Row by Bonnisseau
Click for the score or flageolet part as a pdf or download the whole score as a Sibelius file.
The Keel Row is a set variations for the French flageolet by the bandleader Bonnisseau. The latter variations are extremely difficult and require a brilliant technique.
Study for Double Flageolet by Egan
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .jpg file) or to hear a midi recording of the piece.
Taken from Egan's Preceptor of the Double Flageolet, c.1820 this little piece demonstrates the standard music played on the instrument. Apart from the slightly flamboyant ornamentation in the second section of the piece, its conservative use of harmony and the rather predictable tune, shows the difficulty of composing interesting pieces for the instrument. It is worth comparing this to the Parry Divertimento, which shows what could be achieved in the hands of a master.
Divertimento by John Parry
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .gif file) or to hear a midi recording of the piece.
This piece was written for a double-flageolet with the intention of showing off how many different keys in which the instrument could play. This was in response to criticism that the double-flageolet was very much limited to D and G majors and their relative minors. Parry not only explores more tricky keys, such as F and A major but also delves into the minor, with passages in B♭ and G minor. The writing is virtuosic, with interesting counterpoint contrasting with passages in parallel major thirds (the latter being the easiest form of harmony to play in the instrument). This piece easily achieves its aim of showing that the double-flageolet could be played as a serious art instrument and was not limited to trite tunes such as Egan's Study.
Vaudeville Pour Les Flageolets quoted by Mersenne
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .gif file) or to hear a midi recording of the piece.
This piece was quoted by Mersenne in his Harmonie Universelle which would date the piece at around 1630. In this period, flageolets were made in a number of different sizes and this piece would require four.
Caprices 1, 2 and 3 from the 12 Grand Studies or Caprices by Narcisse Bousquet
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file).
The 12 Grand Studies or Caprices are a set of virtuosic works for the French Flageolet by the French band–leader Narcisse Bousquet. They are slowly being digitalised. Until complete, please regard this as a work in progress!
March, March, Etrick and Tevoit Dale as sung by Mr. Braham
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file).
Taken from a tutor for Simpson's Improved English Flageolet, this is one of many examples of a popular song reworked into a flageolet solo.
The Bird In Yonder Cage Confined by Corri and Bibdin, as sung by Storace
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file).
This is one of a number of short songs which include a flageolet obbligato to impersonate the sound of birds. The aria comes from the Corri’s opera “The Cabinet”, although as the song was left out of the published score for the opera, this edition has been prepared from a 1802 song-sheet, published by Corri himself. The work obviously enjoyed a certain amount of popularity, as it was republished by Musical Bouquet in 1874. (The 1874 edition is almost identical to the 1802 version, except that it has been transposed down a semi-tone, from F to E Major). The flageolet part, which is otherwise missing, has been roughly realised from piano accompaniment. It is reasonably challenging work for the flageolet player, which coupled between the quick interplay between the vocalist and instrumentalists, suggests that the flageolet part was originally played off-stage by the Royal Opera’s professional flageolet player.
This song is mentioned in Westmacott’s satirical work “The English Spy” (Volume 1, page 183) where the composer (renamed “Tori”) is depicted dejectedly following the opera patron:
‘Ye rude canaille, make way, make way,
The Countess and the Count ——————,
Who play de prettee flute,
Who charm une petit English ninnie,
Till all the Joueur J————’s guinea
Him pochée en culotte.
Who follows? ’tis the Signor Tori,
’Bout whom the gossips tell a story,
With some who’ve gone before:
“The bird in yonder cage confined
Can sing of lovers young and kind,”
But there, he'll sing no more.’
Westmacott thankfully provides a length explanation which might elucidate the satire:
‘There are various tales circulated in the fashionable world relative to the origin and family of the count, who has certainly been a most fortunate man: he is chiefly indebted for success with the countess to his skill as an amateur on the flute, rather than to his paternal estates. The patron of foreigners, he takes an active part in the affairs of the Opera-house.—Poor Tori having given some offence in this quarter, was by his influence kept out of an engagement; but it would appear he received some amends, by the following extract from a fashionable paper of the day.
“A certain fashionable———l, who was thought to be au comble de bonheur, has lately been much tormented with that green-eyed monster, Jealousy, in the shape of an opera singer. Plutôt mourir que changer, was thought to be the motto of the pretty round-faced English——————s; but, alas! like the original, it was written on the sands of disappointment, and was scarcely read by the admiring husband, before his joy was dashed by the prophetic wave, and the inscription erased by a favoured son of Apollo. L'oreille est le chemin du cour: so thought the ———l, and forbade the —————s to hold converse with Monsieur T.; but les femmes peuvent tout, parce-qu'elles gouvernent ceux qui gouvernent tous. A meeting took place in Grosvenor-square, and, amid the interchange of doux yeux, the ————-l arrived: a desperate scuffle ensued; the intruder was banished the house, and, as he left the door, is said to have whistled the old French proverb of Le bon temps viendra. This affair has created no little amusement among the beau monde. All the dowagers are fully agreed on one point, that l'amour est une passion qui vient souvent sans qu'on s'en apperçoîve, et, qui s'en va aussi de même.”
Ah! Little Blind Boy by Kelly, sung with great applause in the 40 ieves by Miss De Camp.
Click for the Sheet Music (as a .pdf file).
This is another early 19th song with flageolet obbligato although very little information is now available about Michael Kelly or his opera, “40 Thieves”, from which it comes. It appears that it was reprinted a number of times during the Century, although judging by the style of engraving, this arrangement for voice and piano with flageolet obbligato was made soon after the opera’s publication (c. 1809). This edition was prepared from a scan of the original made available by the JScholarship site of Johns Hopkins University.
