Gustav Holst - Folksongs of Hampshire England . In the early 1900's there was great interest in collecting and preserving the folk songs of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Equipped with their newly invented recording devices, people such as Cecil Sharp, Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gustav Holst would travel into the country-side to record, or notate songs being sung. They would frequently use these songs in their own compositions. Holst's music in particular is filled with those songs and his two suites for band are especially valued by wind bands around the world. This group of four songs was arranged for voice and piano by Holst and set for flute choir by John Gibson. The songs are 1. Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low 2. Bedlam City 3. The Irish Girl 4. Young Reilly. The instrumentation is: Piccolo, Flute 1-3, Alto Flute, Bass Flute, and Contra Bass Flute.

3 Irish Folksongs arranged by Charles Villiers Stanford and set for flute quintet by John Gibson. Charles Stanford arranged many folksongs that he and others collected. This set comes from his "Songs of Erin" (1901) and is set for 4 C Flutes and 1 Alto Flute with an alternate 5th C part provided. The tunes are : The Killarney Hunt, Now Mary What's the Matter, and Reynard on the Mountain High.

"Killing Me Softly with His Song" is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by NormanGimbel. The song was written in collaboration with LoriLieberman, who recorded the song in late 1971. In 1973 it became anumber-one hit in the USand Canada for RobertaFlack, also reaching number six in the UKSingles Chart. The song has since been covered by numerous artists,including the version by the Fugees, which won the 1997 Grammy for BestRandB Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

This song is arranged forFlute Choir Quintet (Piccolo, 2 Flutes, Alto Flute and Bass Flute). The levelis Advance Intermediate and the duration is 3.47 minutes.

A Song of Winter?Snowmen & Icicles
PhyllisAvidan Louke
Length: 6:45
Difficulty: 3 to 3+

Evocative of a cold and windy dayin winter, A Song of Winter explores the contrasts between thesmoothness and roundness of a snowman and the hardness and jaggedness oficicles.

Beginning with a winter stormwith wind and swirling snow, the wind calms, and the building of a snowmanbegins with the rolling of a snowball. The rolling forms the biggest ball of the snowman (represented by thebass and alto flutes), which is briefly interrupted by a playful snowballfight. The flutes continue the melodyfor the rolling of the second ball of the snowman, followed by the piccolorepresenting the rolling of the smallest ball (the head of the snowman). The melody is smooth and round in a lilting I time.

With the snowman complete, thewind and swirling snow return to lead into the Icicles section. The jaggedness of the icicles is representedby the jaggedness of syncopation in a marcato style with the melody skippinglarger intervals than the Snowmen melody. Visually, the score shows the jagged shape ofthe icicles. Double-tongued ascendingand descending lines, add to hard and brittle feeling of the icicles, as wellas to the shape of the melody. Thepiccolo adds the glistening, shimmering effect of sunlight reflecting off the icicles. Eventually, fragments of the Snowmenmelody are interspersed with the Icicles, followed by a final windstorm, which calms at the end of the piece.

Christmas
Winter
Winter Holidays
Stormy
Concert
Original Composition

An arrangement of two traditional Chanukah pieces for flute choir. Just in time for the upcoming holidays!