Flute solos

[karlhenning]

Just an astonishing piece of pure melody.

Well, you try writing a harmonic piece for flute solo 

[PerfectWagnerite]

Well, you try writing a harmonic piece for flute solo 

You CAN play more than one note on the flute at the same time if you combine some creativ fingering, embrochure(sic) and breath control. I used to have a book that my flute teacher made me study...I wasn't good at it though.

[karlhenning]

Multiphonics are a dicey thing.

Of course, there are ways of writing a single line to suggest more than one voice, e.g.

[Bach Man]

Listening right now to the Sonata in A minor for solo flute by the inimitable Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach. His employer, Frederic the great, was a flautist, so poor C.P.E had to come up with lots of compositions for flute.

[FideLeo]

Listening right now to the Sonata in A minor for solo flute by the inimitable Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach. His employer, Frederic the great, was a flautist, so poor C.P.E had to come up with lots of compositions for flute.

That is not to say that Frederic the Great himself and his favourite composer, Johann Joachim Quantz, didn't write even more solo and concertante works for flute.  Many of them are quite fine as well.   

[The Mad Hatter]

Well, you try writing a harmonic piece for flute solo 

*sigh*

What I meant was that I consider that solo to be...I don't know...almost the definition of the word melody. There's no word to describe it for me, so I use melody.

[anasazi]

Well, you try writing a harmonic piece for flute solo 

But the harmony can be implied by the intervals in the melody.  I see no problem.

[karlhenning]

But the harmony can be implied by the intervals in the melody.  I see no problem.

But it is (in a neutral sense) a problem;  I am not saying there are no solutions.

It remains a challenge, to which not all composers rise to an equal degree of success.

Personally, as one who has now written several pieces for clarinet solo, I very much enjoy the challenge.

[Joe_Campbell]

The flute solo from the 2nd movement of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major
Debussy's, Prelude in the...., the solo at the end of Nuages from Nocturnes

[jochanaan]

The flute solo at the end of the first movement of Shostakovich 10th symphony. For me that's one of the highlights of the entire symphony.

Works better with two piccolos as Shostakovich wrote it.

There's also a long, beautiful flute solo towards the end of the first movement of Mahler's Ninth.  And lots of gorgeous flute writing in "Der Abschied" from Das Lied von der Erde.

[anasazi]

But it is (in a neutral sense) a problem;  I am not saying there are no solutions.

It remains a challenge, to which not all composers rise to an equal degree of success.

Personally, as one who has now written several pieces for clarinet solo, I very much enjoy the challenge.

Yes, I agree that it is a challenge.  Have you heard Miklos Rozsa's solo sonatas?  There was one for clarinet, one for flute, guitar and violin if I'm remembering rightly.  A couple of these did rise to the challenge.