Flute Beauty: 12 Melodies for Flute & Piano

Here are 12 beautiful melodies for flute and piano - just as it says on the cover! This is a book that can be used and enjoyed by everyone and it is progressive so you can work through them easily enough. The style is an appealing easy listening genre with a jazz influence, and the pieces really work. Most of them fall into the slower, dreamy category (The Depth of you Being and My Heart Will Know) to the slightly more upbeat such as the Variation to Delightful Journey and Gigue. The piano accompaniment is an integral part of the overall effect so playing these with a like-minded friend would a wonderful way to pass an afternoon! If you like your music to be comfortable and warm this is definitely the book for you!

This is a collection of twelve simple melodic pieces for flute, aimed at adults who are relatively near to the beginning of their flute learning journey. Described in the preface as “material for the flute lover all around the world”, these twelve tonal melodies explore the expressive side of the flute, while introducing simple technical concepts. The music is stylistically as one might expect from the title; film music is an influence, as is jazz, and the pieces are often reminiscent of classical crossover, making them likely to appeal to a wide range of players. The pieces begin simply and become more complex as the book progresses, using a range of keys up to four sharps, and exploring in particular the low and middle registers. There are some more tricky moments that might challenge complete beginners, such as a 4 against 3 rhythm in the final piece and some syncopations in African Moon, but these are introduced occasionally and one by one, so are likely to provide additional interest and allow adult players to extend their skills.

The titles of the pieces range from descriptive (Gigue, Delightful Journey, Innocent Joy) to more philosophical (Inner Gaze and The Depth of your Being), and the piano accompani-ments are relatively modest in difficulty. High quality backing tracks can be downloaded from Båge’s website. The score is well presented in a relatively big font which makes it easy to read. Page turns are well considered in the flute part, although there are a number of blank pages. I had a few minor niggles with the music typesetting, which occasionally doesn’t follow theoretical convention, but that aside, this is a nicely presented book which provides some interesting variety to early stage (approximately Grade 3–5) players