kryvt

I figured it was an April fool's sort of thing, but - there's so little truly amusing flute music, and this is done very well. If it's all right I'd love to stick this in a recital or two (and perhaps play it at a couple of music festivals?). I'm eagerly awaiting any new flute miniatures you write :D

This is amazing. If you wrote more movements I would absolutely play them. Oh god, please write more!

Really good questions! It would be wonderful if more composers asked about issues like this before giving out unplayable pieces. Thank you for that :) All right: 1. It's always better, when using multiphonics, to pick a specific multiphonic and write the fingering for it above the note that needs it - since multiphonics are (comparatively rare) in flute music, it's not often that you come across the same one twice, so it's very very helpful to know how to finger it. Don't worry about players having trouble producing it; it's a negligible worry compared to how to GET the multiphonic that you want. 2. It depends on the multiphonic, so there's no real rule - I'd tend to keep the durations normal note length, as even with practice it can sometimes, on a delicately balanced multiphonic, be hard to find again consistently. Don't worry about that, though - more important is that your flutist has a lot of time to practice the notes so they know that they won't crack. 3. Again, with lots of practice (depending on how hard the multiphonic is), but I wouldn't go too crazy. 4. For key slaps all the fingers generally have to move for every note, so key slaps are very very impractical at high speeds. 5. Actually, a lot of tremolos smaller than a fifth can also be quite hard; it really depends on what notes you're going back and forth on. Definitely stay out of trilling low if you can help it, but for other tremolos there are a number of trick fingerings, going (practically speaking) up to two Ds above the staff. You can either consult a fingering book, a flutist, or message me if you have specific tremolos in mind.

I really can't stand the faure fantasie for flute/piano. It's like, 'Oh my god, you're playing the Faure?? I love that piece! Here, let's play it together! The opening is beautiful! The second movement is so much fun!' when you even mention it, like you're supposed to know it from memory, and the second movement is the ditziest piece of shlock I've ever heard. grrrrrrr.

Already mentioned, but only in passing; the Griffes Poem is a gorgeous piece, and though it isn't cutting edge it's still got a very modern sound, and should be looked at if only for the opening melodic line (which is amazing - the phrase never actually ends until the end of the piece). It's got a lot of contrasting sections, so definitely something to look into if you want to show off - it has slow, moving sections, quick, furious sections, a jig in the middle, and a cadenza that has possibly one of the most irritating collection of notes I've ever come across, a real beast to play quickly. Kennan's Night Soliloquy does have an arrangement for flute, orchestra, and piano, and while it's not precisely tonal (the entire piece is extremely unpredictable), it's still got an amazing cohesiveness, and it's tonal enough to sound good to someone who doesn't like atonal music. If you can play really delicately, this piece would be great. Hanson's Serenade for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, while what, 60 years old, is also one of those pieces that's definitely not classical, but also isn't scarily modern. It's very tonal, almost too tonal, but it's also very free. I wouldn't consider this extraordinarily difficult, but to sound good on it you're going to have to have a firm grasp of musicality or sound like mush. Worth looking into because it's so beautiful, even if you're not going to play it. One more - Concerto by Otar Gordeli is probably more what I would consider 'modern classical', if that even makes sense. It's definitely not Mozart, but at the same time I think it sounds like something Mozart might write if he was alive today. Amazing cadenza, nice contrast between slow and fast sections, and tonal.