The second volume of flute duets is labeled as difficult. This 8 ½ x11 book is 42 pages and features 13 pieces in sometimes widely contrasting styles. All of the duets are contemporary, and can be humorous, demented, and sarcastic. One such example is the arrangement of the Meow Mix theme song in the fourth duet (I have included a sound clip for this piece). The difficulties present in these works are due to aggressive tempos, difficult rhythms and challenging finger combinations. Melodic lines are frequently broken up between the two instruments. While this creates challenges in continuity, it serves to exploit the contrasting nature of each individual flute player.
Because of their difficulty, I would not recommend this book for players who are not advanced. It was my intention with this book to provide the professional player or university/college student with material to practice and showcase at performances. While different in many respects from the first book, I still use frequent meter changes, and some use of traditional formal structure. All of the duets in this volume feature no key signature and only one of the pieces features special effects.
The following are some sample pages and sound clips (recorded by myself and XiangQun Shao) from the second volume:
Click on the Thumbnail to Enlarge Image:
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