4Friday: Karg-Elert, Gaubert, IMSLP, and Hot Lips

This week's 4Friday selections are skewed a bit to flute music - the students at Curtis have been introducing me to some amazing new repertoire, so it's all thanks to them!

1

I don't know much about Sigfrid Karg-Elert, but apparently he's very, very big with flutists. However, even flute players aren't that familiar with this gem, his Suite pointillistique in G major, Op. 135, an example of Karg-Elert's style of writing that really stretches the boundaries of tonal music in a breathtakingly beautiful way.

2

One of the Curtis flute students introduced me to Philippe Gaubert's Sonata No. 2 - a gorgeous piece, but I actually prefer his Sonata No. 1, so if you don't mind me indulging, here's a recording of the last movement that I did with Jeffrey Khaner. We'll get to Gaubert's Sonata No. 2 in another 4Friday:

3

For classical musicians, IMSLP.org is a goldmine of free public domain sheet music. And since the vast majority of what we play is in the public domain - yup, you guessed it, most of our sheet music is free. 

Here's the sheet music for the Karg-Elert in #1: http://imslp.org/wiki/Suite_pointillistique,_Op.135_(Karg-Elert,_Sigfrid)

Here's the sheet music for the Gaubert in #2: http://imslp.org/wiki/Flute_Sonata_No.1_(Gaubert,_Philippe)

4

As winter approaches, marching band players have to struggle with playing their instruments in cold weather, which makes their instruments sound out of tune. A Slippery Rock University student came up with a brilliant solution for brass players: an electric mouthpiece warmer. Check it out at http://www.hotlipsinstrumentalsupplies.com/ . Now if only someone could come up with something for flutes...