Talk:List of compositions for flute

This page is in pretty sad shape as of 6/13/06/ Eighteen pieces? Please, work on this. What about divisions into major artistic eras, what about discussion of difficulty grading, what about discussion of "popular" (e.g., Galway playing Flight of the Bumblebee) vs. "concert" (e.g., Hindemith Sonata) pieces, what about division into flute alone/flute & piano/concerto/chamber music categories? Actually I think I'll put that in. 160.39.27.109 22:57, 15 June 2006 (UTC)Adam

Time to Pare It Back

I realize the poster above asked for more orchestral excerpts, but it has now gone a bit overboard. "Beethoven Symphonies 1-9"? Could you be a bit more specific? Its well known that flutes have been part of orchestra scoring since the late 18th century, but you don't have to list every piece. Isn't there a shorter list that have more memorable flute solos or concertante aspects? Also, the concertos should be removed from the sonata list and put in their own list. No list of flute concertos?!? That's a list one expects to see on a list like this -- not that orchestral excerpt list that contains any piece where you might be able to pick out a flute (if you listen real close).DavidRF 20:52, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

• There were LOTS of pieces in the solo flute category that I had never heard of. I play the flute. If flute players don't play these pieces, are they really in the flute repertory? Picsou123 (talk) 22:28, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Picsou123: The answer to your tautological-sounding question would certainly appear to be "no". I suspect the lists here have been padded by obscure or minor composers attempting self-promotion. It would be a different matter if the article were about a rare instrumental combination. Since it's mostly about common instrumental combinations, we should restrict ourselves to famous (actually famous) examples. If you or another flutist would begin by listing those pieces mentioned here with which you are familiar, we can begin by investigating the remaining pieces. They should probably be easily obtainable, and they should probably have been recorded (ideally multiple times). TheScotch (talk) 07:33, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

There is no question that this list is bloated beyond its stated limits. However, those limits are rather vague (what is the threshold for "famousness"?). The first of your own suggested criteria, for example, "easily obtainable" is rather elastic: in the bins of every sheet-music shop (are there even sheet-music shops any longer?); available free for download on the internet; published in a deluxe, morocco-bound, gold-stamped, hand-copied limited edition to anyone with really deep pockets? Recordings are more objectively verifiable, but not necessarily the whole story. There are highly difficult, virtuosic pieces (for example, those by Brian Ferneyhough) which are not going to appear often on recordings (and scarcely ever on school recital programmes!), and yet are prominent in the repertory because they have been championed by the few flautists who actually can play them; then there are easy, attractive, but rather superficial pieces which are performed often (and for that reason of course do belong on this list) but do not command the same level of respect from flute players. It would be well to set out some ground rules before wading into this thicket with a scythe.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 17:07, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Jerome, if it's a thicket, it needs a scythe (or a just a stick--"A thicket's no trick. Is it thick?....The quickest is pick it apart with a stick."). Anything deleted that shouldn't have been can easily be returned. I can't see how in hell we would ever come up with absolute criteria, but common sense, it seems to me, says we don't really require them. If we hold out for absolute criteria, we'll never make any progress at all, and this article will remain a swamp (which is how I would metaphorically characterize it) of festering shameless self-promotion. It won't be a tragedy if we miss pieces that should be included. The way I would proceed is simply to come up with a core set that most flutists (unfortunately, I'm not one myself) interested in this article can roughly agree upon and then carefully examine the remaining candidates and any candidate that someone may introduce later (I can participate in this part). It seems logical to me to try to err on the side of exclusion.TheScotch (talk) 01:28, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps it is a subtlety too far, but I did not say a scythe was not needed, nor did I ask for "absolute criteria"—merely some ground rules. From your response, I might conclude that you are advocating a "scorched earth" policy: delete everything in the list and then wait for other editors to try adding them back in—at their peril. Somehow I can't believe this would be a productive strategy.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 15:43, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

I have noticed that many other instrument repertoire pages are titled with "repertoire" rather than "repertory." In order to maintain consistency, I'd like to change this page's title to "Flute Repertoire." There is an article called "musical repertoire" that lists various links to other repertoire pages on Wikipedia, where you can see that this page is the only instrumental page using "repertory." That terms seems to be used more so in theater, so I believe "repertoire" is more accurate and stylistically appropriate for Wikipedia. --Blanketburrito (talk) 16:45, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

I think I did the move incorrectly, it is my first time! I will return next week and do it the right way this time. --Blanketburrito (talk) 16:55, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Flute repertoire

This article, List of compositions for flute, was until yesterday Flute repertoire (as discussed in 2017) and looked like this. Sources for the pieces lost in the process are wanted. For composers from previous eras, these may only exist offline. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:47, 7 December 2022 (UTC)