Halloween Flute Duet!

So maybe I got ahead of myself posting about the Christmas Flute Duets the other day. Never fear! I managed to find some time and crank out a flute duet for Halloween. The best familiar tune I could think of (that was in public domain) was Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod. Like many people, I was really only familiar with the theme played in the Hitchcock TV series. So when I dug around and found the original piano piece, I was surprised to find so much more to the work. That's why I love doing these simple arrangements. It makes me do score study. It flexes my composition skills in a different way. I have to to pay attention and figure out what is most important. How does this piece work? How will it translate? Hopefully, things rub off when I write my original pieces. For right now, enjoy this arrangement and hopefully some time soon I'll record it and eradicate that awful MIDI rendering:

http://www.spottedrocket.com/FuneralMarch.html

Christmas Music for Flute Duet!

Oh yes, its about that time of year where I start touting all the Christmas Music I've arranged for flute duet. I know its only September, but they time you factor in search engines finding this article and the prep time musicians need to get their Christmas Music practiced and in a Christmas program for the season it makes me start peddling them in September. Actually, I work on them all year - even when I'm not in the mood. I'll put on QVC's Christmas in July programs and I get the courage to start putting a few more arrangements out.

I originally made my first few flute duet arrangements out of frustration. I had some really talented students who wanted to sight read Christmas music in their lessons, but the majority of the duets out there are ridiculously easy. Not a challenge at all. So I tried to make some challenging ones which included changing meters from simple to complex, and also playing in the higher register. I posted my first one "Silent Night" on a flute forum, and I took my dogs on a walk. When I got back, I had a half dozen orders waiting on me. So I did a few more. I have arrangements of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", "Jingle Bells", "Silent Night", "Coventry Carol", "What Child Is This?", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "We Three Kings of Orient Are", and "Pat-a-Pan"

Not only did the arrangements help my students get some extra practice while having fun, but we were able to have extra money for our Christmas that year - not to mention how it helped build my skills as a composer. So every so often, I'll arrange a few more. I even did some Easter Flute Duets as well as Wedding Flute Duets. All this duet arranging got me thinking - I should write an original flute duet using extended techniques that I love, like beatboxing. Chatter for flute duet was born.

I'm grateful that teaching my students led to arranging which led to writing an original composition I'm proud of. Who would have thought? Now go buy my Christmas Music for Flute Duet :) Did I mention they work for violin as well?