My first duets were arrangements of standard orchestral excerpts, which I made last fall, for my personal audition prep. Early in 2022, I arranged music for The Pan-Tones (3-4 flutes, guitar, and drums). In the spring, I started practicing the Reinecke Concerto (to play on a recital), and decided on a whim one morning to record some of the accompaniment on the flute, and play it with the solo part.

I loved doing that so much, I decided to arrange the entire concerto!

This idea (like most creative ideas) came to me through several different influences and inspirations.

I had experienced two of my teachers (Mark and Cathy) “duetting” flute excerpts from the piano score, which helped the student understand the phrasing, harmony, and style of the music. I also recently recalled that as a student (10+ years ago), I helped my college professor (MKC) create a duet part for some flute etudes.

Last year, I discovered Mark Sparks‘ arrangements of the Mozart flute concertos for flute duet. His arrangements inspired me in a couple of ways:

1. The idea that a work as a large as a flute concerto could successfully become a flute duet. He also has arranged sections of symphonies for flute duet in his excerpt books.
2. The idea that flute duets could be challenging. A lot of duets I’ve played are designed for quick sight reading, and are often simplified versions of other works. Mark’s arrangements don’t shy away from using the entire range of the flute (low Bs), and don’t attempt to simplify parts. The translation of a part from a different instrument provides the flutist some interesting challenges.

There are so many great ways to use these duets- I’m sure I haven’t even thought of all of them yet.

Here are some of the reasons I LOVE these duets:

1. You can conceive of the work as (more of) a whole from the beginning. Often, I think flutists learn a piece from the flute part, bring it to their teacher, then have them make lots of little adjustments to it. But this is only because the flutist has not learned the accompaniment! A lot of the phrasing, articulation, and dynamics become obvious when the music is understood as a whole. Even though by necessity a duet has to omit a lot, it’s still 2x as much information.
2. You can always play a flute duet. Record one part on your phone, and play along. Flute players also tend to have lots of flute player friends, and what is more pleasurable than playing music with friends?
3. No more stressing about entrances. In a flute part, sections of rest are simply ignored by a flutist. By playing through these parts, you learn what is happening musically, and have complete confidence with entrances when playing with an accompanist.
4. Communicating rhythm, articulation, phrasing, style, etc. As a teacher, being able to play the accompaniment for your student allows you to convey the subtleties of a piece much more efficiently than all of the words that could possibly be said in the duration of a lesson.
5. Fun! It is so fun and satisfying to play duets- to hear the resolution of cadences, the interplay of musical lines. That’s also how the composer concieved of the piece.

I have a dream to arrange most of the public domain flute repertoire for flute duet. It’s so fun for me, and a great way to study the music.

Find my arrangements here.