La Feria-Lacome-flute quartet Flute Quartet - Digital Sheet Music

La Feria (The Fair) is a Spanish fiesta! All the sights and sounds of a traditional Spanish street festival.  

Paul Lacome wrote mostly operas-bouffes, light comic operas. That same drama and delight comes through in this piece. Originally written for orchestra, there have been many popular arrangements for band. I have arranged it for Flute Quartet without losing any of the Spanish tradition or dramatic character of the piece.  

The Suite is in 3 sections. The first is entitled Los Toros (The Bulls). The running of the bulls is a tradition of nearly every Spanish fair. This highly energetic and rhythmic section is traditional Spanish fiesta music at its best. The second section is entitled La Reja (loosely-The Gate). This one is in the form of a Serenade. Every fair has a street barred off with a special archway entrance or gate. Inside, tents are set up serving local wine. Strolling street musicians will visit each tent and serenade.  This section is scaled back dynamically and also in texture to imitate the solo or duo strolling musician. For the B theme of this section I move the melody to the Flute 3 part down low. I like to amuse myself and think of this brief growling melody as a tipsy patron of the tent singing back to the musicians. The street musicians then quickly resume their original song. The final section is entitled La Zarzuela. The Zarzuela is a uniquely Spanish comic opera that is heavy on dance and spoken dialogue. It has much in common with the American vaudeville shows. This section is in the form of a brisk waltz, another high energy rhythmic dance where Flute 2 takes the B theme melody.  

This piece is of Advanced difficulty due to constant movement, articulations, and rhythm; but especially because of concert range. Part 1 goes from low E to highest B; Part 2 goes from Middle C to E above staff; Part 3 goes from Middle C to B above staff; Part 4 goes from Middle C to E in staff top space. Flute 2 and 3 just dip to the low C once, but Flute 4 spends an enormous amount of time on the bottom three notes of the range. Thus I have also included a transposition so that the Flute 4 part can be played on Alto Flute if desired. It is also possible to play the Flute 1 part on Piccolo, which will obviously sound up an octave and make that melodic part really stand out. Taking these two outer voices to the other instruments adds even more energy to this dramatic piece.  

This piece is a Tour de Force for Flutes!  

21 page score, 4 pages @ part, 43 pages total booklet

4:30 minutes

MIDI recording done with 4 C Flutes