Charles Marie Widor - clearly a musical genius!
Flutists today adore Widor's contribution to the flute repertior. His "Suite for Flute and Piano" consists of four movement, the first being rather lyrical, the second a scherzo, the third a romance, and the fourth a powerful technical masterpiece! You definitely want to experiece the joys of the "Romance" which is in a clip below.
The Wonderful World of Carmen
Everyone is familiar with the music of Carmen, but of special interest to flutists is the Entr'acte solo! It's short, sweet, and absolutely adorable! Listen here!
Extended technique for piccolo???????
Most classical musicians today are familiar with the demands of extended technique for their instruments. The exact demands of that are different for every instrument, and I only claim to be educated about ones available for flute. Even I do not know all the possible techniques though! Many of the same techniques available for flute are also possible on piccolo. The most common extended techniques are: flutter tongue, singing while playing, multiphonics, pitch bending, key clicking, and air sounds.
In my first example, The High and the Mighty for piccolo and piano by Michael Daugherty, you can hear the extended techniques of flutter tongue, pitch bending, and singing while playing.
In my second example you can hear an excerpt of a piece for wind ensemble called Gloriosa by Yasuhide Ito in which the second movement is almost exclusively piccolo solo. This piece places great emphasis on pitch bending, as would be the norm for Asian folk music.
Note - all three samples are owned by the performer. Please contact me if you wish to use these recording samples in any way.
