This absolutely fabulous song comes from the 1965 slapstick comedy film, The Great Race. I first heard it on James Galway's album, In the Pink, which features Galway playing 13 of Henry Mancini's songs.

This piece just screams fun in the middle of a gazillion notes just flying by. Filled with arpeggios, this is a workout for the fingers and requires quite a bit of precision for the song to sound really good. As with most of my arrangements, I have tried to give every part something interesting to play, with the exception of the contrabass flute and optional upright bass, which could also be played by any C instrument in the bass clef range. These lower parts are important in helping maintain good downbeats.

Scored for 5 C flutes, alto, bass, contrabass, and optional upright bass. There are 2-part divisis in flutes 1 - 4. This piece is for the more advanced flute choir and would be a great opener or encore for your recitals.

Duration: 2.75 minutes

The Pie in the Face Polka by Henry Mancini comes from the film, The Great Race that included Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood. The scene in the movie is a massive pie throwing festival where even the clean Tony Curtis gets it in the face. As you might imagine, the music is comical and fun, too. This has been set for clarinet quartet by John Gibson. (Bb Soprano 1 - 3, and bass).

Made famous by James Galway, presented here for solo flute and flute quartet - 2 flutes, alto flute and bass flute.