Announcing Salon de flûte: French Intermediate Flute Repertoire

I'm happy to announce a new project: Salon de flûte: French Intermediate Flute Repertoire.

Thousands of young flute students worldwide perform annually in solo and ensemble festivals and competitions. They are eager to find models of good performances of their chosen repertoire, but in many cases, no recordings exist. The first place they search is YouTube, often finding inexpert performances by their peers—some with thousands of hits—but few videos featuring professional flutists. The present project seeks to remedy this situation by providing:

• video performance guides to thirteen charming intermediate-level French solo works on my YouTube Channel and written guides available at this blog; and
• a beautifully recorded album of these works widely distributed at CDBaby.com, Amazon.com, Google Play and on iTunes either as a CD or as digital downloads of the entire album or affordable separate tracks.

The videos, although each focused on a specific work, will address general principles of style and interpretation, flute technique, articulation, tone, and intonation.

Our criteria for choosing the pieces:

• They are well crafted and musically compelling;
• They are classified as Levels D through G in Selected Flute Repertoire and Studies: A Graded Guide (National Flute Association, Inc.: 2009), Grades 5-8 in the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program, or Grades 4-8 in the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Syllabus.
•  They prepare students to study Paris Conservatory morceaux de concours;
•  They have not been widely recorded by major artists (or have not been recorded at all).

Here are the chosen works:

Composer	Title	Publisher	Difficulty Level
Claude Arrieu (1903-1990)	Sonatine	Amphion	1st mvmt: ABRSM Grade 5
Louis Aubert (1877-1968)	Lied	In Contemporary French Recital Pieces, Vol. 1 (International) originally ed. Fernand Oubradous, publ. Billaudot, 1953	NFA Level D
Armand Bournonville (1890-1957)	Danse pour Katia	Billaudot, Southern In Robert Cavally, 15 Concert Pieces (Southern)	NFA Level F
Georges Brun (1878-1961)	Romance, Op. 41	In Voxman, Concert and Contest Collection (Rubank)	NFA Level G RCM Grade 7
Henri Büsser (1872-1973)	Les Cygnes et Les Écureuils	Leduc	NFA Level G RCM Grade 8
Henri Büsser (1872-1973)	Petite Suite, Op. 12	Durand or Masters	NFA Level G RCM Grade 8
Johannes Donjon (1839-1912)	Offertoire, Op. 12	In Cavally, 24 Short Concert Pieces	NFA Level G
Johannes Donjon (1839-1912)	Pan! (Pastorale No. 1)	In Cavally, 24 Short Concert Pieces	NFA Level F
Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (1842-1907)	Deux morceaux, Op. 41	In Rearick, Flute Solos from the Paris Conservatory	II: RCM Grade 7
Henri Gagnebin (1886-1977)	March of the Jolly Fellows	In Contemporary French Recital Pieces, Vol. 1 (International)	NFA Level F
Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)	Romance	In Contemporary French Recital Pieces, Vol. 1 (International)	ABRSM Grade 4 NFA Level D
Charles-Édouard Lefebvre (1843-1917)	Deux pièces, Op. 72	Zimmermann, no. 2 in Rearick, Flute Solos from the Paris Conservatory and Cavally, 15 Concert Pieces	I: RCM Grade 6 II: ABRSM Grade 8
Gérard Meunier (b. 1928)	Au Crépuscule	Lemoine	NFA Level E ABRSM Grade 5

Total Timing: 54:55

ABRSM: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Syllabus, http://us.abrsm.org

NFA: National Flute Association, http://www.nfaonline.org

RCM: Royal Conservatory Music Development Program, http://www.musicdevelopmentprogram.org

As a pilot project, we have already released a video performance guide to Georges Brun’s lovely Romance, Op. 41 (1905) [see http://www.youtube.com/user/leonardgarr] and an audio recording of the same work, available for $0.99 at all of the outlets listed above [see http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/leonardgarrison2]. Videos will be released individually when they are completed. The CD and digital audio files will be released before the end of 2014. Watch here for more to come!