It is useful to keep your own notes on the teaching or performance specifics of pieces in your studio library. Update these as you acquire new pieces, read good articles or view videos by other flutists. Here is an example of information you will want to collect.
Intermediate Solos
Allegretto for Flute and Piano Benjamin Godard
A great first solo for practicing speed, it is also a great encore and wonderful on piccolo as well.
Canzone, Op. 53, No. 1 J. Andersen
A one page solo with piano which sounds Romantic. It is in 6/8 time and although in two, sounds like a waltz.
Fantasie Georges Hüe
See notes below on Flute Music by French Composers.
Flute Music by French Composers Collection
Conservatoire pieces are the perfect tool for beginning to teach about flute solo playing in flute repertoire. The pieces are short in duration, lasting an average of six minutes. They offer melodic passages for phrasing, tone study and nuance, and passages in high and low registers. They also offer opportunities to practice attacks, slurring, staccato, cadenzas and of course technique. These are definitely standard solo repertoire.
Jesters, Jousters and Jugglers Edward Edelson
This piece is of great benefit for those unique students who get through a piece by listening to the music rather than counting. The flute part fits with the piano, but you must count. Great for learning that particular lesson.
Sicilienne et Burlesque Alfredo Casella
See notes on Flute Music by French Composers.
Duo for Flute and Piano Aaron Copland
Written in 1971, this is a very interesting and programmable duet for flute and piano. Very exposed flute parts are quite a challenge. Piano is true duet partner not accompaniment.
Intermediate Duets
Thirty Easy Duets In All Keys for Two Flutes Louis Moyse McGinnis & Marx
These duets are a great addition to flute duet repertoire. For the student they not only offer music in all keys, but include many rhythms, articulations, styles – like jazz, and forms like a bolero, a tarantella, and a canon. They are short enough to assign one a week for private lessons and can also even be used as performance pieces for background music.
Advanced Solos
Flute Sonata, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
This piece was premiered in 1957 in Strasbourg by Jean-Pierre Rampal, with Poulenc on the piano. Rampal also did the United States premiere at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on February 14, 1958. Francis used to say he wanted his music played exactly as he wrote it without sentimentality or rubato. Too many interpretations tend to slow down at the end of every phrase, and Poulenc disliked that. He wanted terminal or long notes to be held exactly the time indicated. Initial tempo mark should be Allegro malinconico. In the first movement play the upbeat to number 3 p and give a darker color on the Ab two bars before number 9. On the last flourish, play as if the tempo is no longer important, whereas the ensemble with the piano still is. Cantilena move tempo forward after the first phrase. Presto Giocoso – play as fast as you can. By Michel Debost, Flute Talk magazine, July/August 2012.
Sonata, Henri Dutilleux (1913–2013)
From notes by Michel Debost, Flute Talk, February 2012. “Still one of the greatest 20th Century works for flute even though the composer disliked it. Because it was written for the Morceaux de Concours it had to fit within certain guidelines. It must be 8 – 10 minutes long, have a fast movement, a slow one, some detache, some legato and a cadenza. The time constraint caused him to repeat the first cadenza one half step higher. Performance notes: There should be a very slight ritard before rehearsal 1, but none before rehearsal 3. In the finale, the scale in the 7th bar after 10 should be meno mosso. Finally the last notes, although accented, should be given rush not weight. Do not use too much color change or rubato.”
Sonata, Op. 23 for Flute and Piano, Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961)
Written in 1988, this flute and piano sonata was a work commissioned from this new New York City composer by flutist Paula Robison. Paula performed the premier in Charleston, South Carolina in 1988. Although very technically and musically challenging, it is listed on the National Flute Association High School solo list.