It is the oldest known musical instrument. It is also one of the best known and most used. Relatively simple in construction and interpretation, which has allowed it to remain valid over time.
Nowadays, to enter symphony orchestras, in some conservatories and other specialized places, you have to know how to interpret several songs for flute.
There is a wide variety of models and varieties within the family of this instrument. Although the best known are the Recorder and Transverse Flute. The first is placed vertically in front of the face, while the second is placed on the side.
The flute is listed as a woodwind instrumentAlthough a variety of materials are used for its construction, including some metals such as silver and nickel.
A learned and cultured instrument
It had an eminently popular character during its early development. But from the Middle Ages the flute entered the field of chamber music. This brought as a consequence that, for some centuries, it fell into disuse and went out of style, at least in the West.
This phenomenon was also conditioned by the end of the heyday for minstrel music. And when the renowned composers brought it back already in the Renaissance, it settled almost exclusively under the dominions of academic music, monarchies and aristocracies.
Songs for flute: classical examples
Several famous composers of so-called classical music, They dedicated part of their work to writing concerts for this instrument, acting as a soloist. Antonio Vivaldi, Italian musician of the Baroque period and known mainly for The four Seasons, has bequeathed us an important number of pieces for flute.
Johann Sebastian Bach, another musician of the Baroque period and who was notably influenced by Vivaldi, also left several songs for flute within his wide repertoire. Most of them, sonatas in which violins, cellos and harpsichord served as accompaniment to the sweet sounds of the transverse tube.
Already within the properly classical period, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart he composed several works with the flute as the protagonist. Most of these compositions, quartets formed by violin, viola and cello, in addition to the wind instrument.
With modernity came the diversification of the instrument
With the entrance of the XNUMXth century, the flute went out to roam the streets again. Little by little it was recovering its spaces within popular culture, beyond the academy. That is how became prevalent within genres such as Celtic music.
His appearances within rhythms such as the Power metal or Progressive rock. While some arrangements in pop ballad, hip hop and to salsa they also include it.
The Jazz it was one of the first musical movements to "bring her back." The clarinet took first place in the ranking of elementary wind instruments within this genre (saxophone and trumpets). But from the 1930s the first flute solos began to be heard.
Jerome Richardson, Frank Wess and Bud Shank were among the first prominent flute players in the jazz band. Then followed, among many others, musicians such as James Moody, Sam Most, Joe Farrell and Eric Dolphy.
The flute: before and after Jean Pierre Rampal
The one who restored this instrument to popularity on a superlative level, as it had not had it since the XNUMXth century, was this outstanding French flute player. The majestic performances of classical or jazz music by Jean Pierre Rampal, they got new generations of musicians interested in the flute, as well as the violin or the cello.
Rampal brought to the ears of all public works of Bach, Mozart y Beethoven. Also from claude debusy y Antonio Vivaldi, among many others. As for Jazz, among the songs for flute interpreted by the French stand out amaurose, baroque and blue e Intimate. All taken from the "long play" Bolling: Suite for flite & jazz piano trio, in which the also French Claude Bolling plays the piano
The flute in film music
In 1997, one of the most famous flute songs of the last 50 years made its appearance. Is about My heart will go on, Composed by James Horner and Will Jennigs, played by Celin Dion.
The theme was composed to be part of the very successful film Titanic. The leiv motive, marked precisely by the flute, is constantly heard in the background throughout the projection.
Horner, one of the most versatile film composers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, included the flute in his arrangements far beyond Titanic. The American, who died in 2015, used this instrument to identify his work in films such as Braveheart o Jumanji (both released in 1995).
Other musicians who have brought the flute to the movies include John Williams (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) and Hans Zimmer (Gladiator). While Quentin Tarantino used the lonely shepherd (The Lonely Shepherd) by Gheorge Zamfir, to shoot the ending credits of Kill Bill Vol. first
Songs for flute in the internet revolution
The development of digital platforms, mainly YouTube, has allowed many virtuous and some fans, show your skills with this instrument on the internet. This is how the music social network owned by Google abounds with “covers” of famous pieces, performed with real mastery.
Among the "reconverted" songs for flute, soundtracks such as that of Pirates of the Caribbean, composed by Hans Zimmer. Too The Imperial March by John Williams.
But the "free" versions give everything. Among those available (with tutorials on how to interpret them), there are songs of all genres. From reggaetón (Slowly, by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee or Happy the 4). There is also pop music (Shape of you by Ed Sheerman or Wake me up by Avicii), rock classics like the entire discography of John Lennon and The Beatles. We even have to mention the "traditional" Noche de paz o Happy Birthday.
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