Par BARTOK BELA. For many countries, folk dances are important cultural treasures. While a first glance at these compositions shows their clear and simple structure with a distinct musical message, a closer look reveals rhythmic curiosities, interesting harmonic shifts, and a diverse expressive range. These characteristics must have enthralled Bartók, as he undertook several research trips to collect original folk tunes. Doing so, he experienced a wealth of culture, as well as a great diversity of people and nature, which he documented musically without altering the charm and authenticity of each encounter. Following a number of arrangements of the pieces (originally composed for piano), the Romanian Folk Dances are now available for Flute and Piano. Gergely Ittzé has captured the spirit of the Hungarian composer perfectly with his arrangements, combining an authentic treatment of the classical original with a sprinkle of contemporary elements. The resulting sound effects are a wonderful match for the old Rumanian peasant style of music. ? Style and atmosphere have been captured in six colourful duo movements of intermediate to more advanced difficulty ? These dances with such diverse melodies, rhythms and origins make sophisticated and entertaining concert pieces ? Elementary pedagogical topics such as technique, meter, harmony, and articulation are addressed within authentic pieces of musical art/ Répertoire / Flûte Traversière et Piano

Grades 1 - 4-As I sit myself down to write this brief foreword I ask myself can there be music more stirring than these old Cornish folk melodies? Though not Cornish myself (I confess to being born a little further up the road in Bristol) I feel I have spent sufficient time in these 'ere parts to resonate with the sturdy brass band tradition that continues to permeate this incomparably beautiful rugged county. One can almost detect a French 'accent' when listening to the piano music of Debussy and likewise speaking as a lapsed brass player there is undoubtedly something of the Cornish twang about Trelawny when played on a cornet or euphonium. Then again one gets a different yetentirely convincing effect upon hearing these melodies rendered on woodwind instruments; hence with a little gamesmanship on my part I am pleased to see my collection of these fifteen delectable ditties come to fruition in the form of arrangements for treble clef brass instruments (in B flat and E flat) trombone and tuba (bass clef) horn in F flute clarinet and bassoon.While many will find themselves humming the likes of Going up Camborne Hill Lamorna or The Helston Furry Dance even before they have turned to the first page - for these are indelibly intertwined with Cornish culture I wonder if I might draw your attention to The Cornish Squire The Pool of Pilate and Cold Blows the Wind Today Sweetheart which are quite simply sublime melodies perhaps needing that extra bit of help in bringing them to mind nowadays. In the best tradition of musical hand-me-downs Cornish folk music works equally ideally sung and played and only by doing so on a regular basis can such traditions hope to continue forward with vigour and authority. A legitimate way of achieving this is to revitalise the harmonic scheme of these ancient tunes and bring them up to date for a modern audience; after all it was such an approach that fuelled the imagination of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams in decades past while skilfully paying homage to the

With Plenty To Chew On-Seven concert pieces including 'Carmina Banana' and other favourites!When I began putting together a few piano pieces back in 2007 I didn't imagine they would quickly spawn a thriving eleven-volume series entitled Eye-Tunes taking players from 'easy' to grade 8 level. Nor did I imagine these might trigger a further five volumes of arrangements for flute and piano two called Creature Comforts (which predictably enough are comprised of animal-inspired pieces) or indeed the three volumes in this current series Flute Pastilles. While it goes without saying that not all pieces conceived for piano will work equally well for the combination of flute andpiano I'm a great believer that a good tune is frequently one which will transcribe easily. I like to think of these cherry-picked arrangements concise though they are as being 'proper' pieces in that they can earn their keep beyond the confines of the practice room or flute lesson. From Book 1 you will find a sprinkling of more thoughtful pieces such as Wind over Goonhilly Forget-Me-Not and Follow the North Star to offset the more jaunty pieces. These in particular call for a little extra attention to tone colour dynamics and phrase-shaping with some awareness of what the piano part is doing too. Think hard about choosing your tempo for each piece as this is a major contributor to musical character and in the faster moving music aim to articulate the rhythms as crisply as you can so that the music can really spring off the page and come to life for your audience.I must acknowledge as before the inestimable contribution to the success of these pieces made by Gillian Poznansky whose suggestions over the appearance of the scores has made such a difference to how the music is likely to be played. She also came up with a fair number of the titles to these pieces and has done them further service by performing them with me to great aplomb on innumerable occasions in far-flung corners of the globe.