Solo repertoire
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Adler Samuel
Adler, Samuel
Aitken, Robert
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach, Johann Sebastian
Bacri, Nicolas
Baksa, Robert
Balter, Marcos
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
Berio, Luciano
Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de
Bon, Maarten
Borisova-Ollas, Victoria
Bourdin, Roger
Bozza, Eugène Joseph
Brings, Allen
Brown, Elizabeth
Burkhard, Willy
Carter, Elliott
Chamberlain, Nicole
Chaminade, Cécile
Chyrzynski, Marcel
Clarke, Ian
Coleman, Valerie
Colgrass, Michael
Colquhoun, Michael
Connesson, Guillaume
Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
Damase, Jean-Michel
De Lorenzo, Leonardo
Debussy, Claude
Dehnhard, Tilmann
DeLaney, Charles Oliver
Desenne, Paul
Dick, Robert
Dohnányi, Ernő
Donatoni, Franco
Dorff, Daniel
Egger, Fabian Johannes
Eggert, Kenneth
Erb, Donald
Feld, Jindřich
Ferroud, Pierre-Octave
Firšt, Nenad
Flothuis, Marius
Folio, Cynthia
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
Furrer, Beat
Garrop, Stacy
Glass, Philip
Gubajdulina, Sofia
Hailstork, Adolphus
Harberg, Amanda
Heiss, John
Heith, David
Hersh, Howard
Higdon, Jennifer
Hindemith, Paul
Holliger, Heinz
Holmboe, Vagn
Honegger, Arthur
Hoover, Katherine
Hovhaness, Alan
Hurel, Philippe
Ibert, Jacques
Ichiyanagi, Toshi
Igudesman, Aleksey
Ittzés, Gergely
Jacob, Gordon
Jemnitz, Sándor
Jóhannsson, Magnús Blöndal
Jolivet, André
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid
Kay, Ulysses
Koechlin, Charles
Kuhlau, Friedrich
Kupferman, Meyer
La Montaine, John
Lavista, Mario
Lee, Eugene
Leeuwen, Ary van
Levinson, Gerald
Lias, Stephen
Liebermann, Lowell
Loeb, David
Loudova, Ivana
Louke, Phyllis Avidan
Marais, Marin
Maresz, Yan
Martino, Donald
Meltzer, Harold
Mercadante, Saverio
Mitchell, Jonathan
Monroe, Ervin
Muczynski, Robert
Nielsen, Carl
Offermans, Wil
Ornstein, Maarten
Panufnik, Roxanna
Pärt, Arvo
Pattillo, Greg
Penman, Katrina
Perle, George
Persichetti, Vincent
Piazzolla, Astor
Poulenc, Francis
Price, William
Pritsker, Gene
Ran, Shulamit
Rea, Stephanie
Reichert, Matthieu Andre
Riegger, Wallingford
Rotaru, Doina
Rozman, Anže
Saariaho, Kaija
Schocker, Gary
Sciarrino, Salvatore
Seif, Sami
Sollberger, Harvey
Somma, Victor
Takemitsu, Tōru
Telemann, Georg Philipp
Tomasi, Henri
Tower, Joan
Tromlitz, Johann George
Varèse, Edgar
Vasks, Pēteris
Weigl, Vally
Widmann, Jörg
Woolf, Randall
Yi, Chen
Yun, Isang
Zgraja, Krystof
"Canto XIII" for Solo Piccolo
"Canto XIII" for Solo Piccolo
Samuel Adler: "Canto XIII" for Solo Piccolo was written in 1994 and dedicated to American piccolo player Jan Gippo, the piccolo player of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the time.
Adler was inspired to write the piece when Gippo lamented the lack of repertoire for the solo piccolo, a gap Adler sought to fill by showcasing the instrument's full range of agility and expression beyond its typical high-register uses. The piece may be performed "straight," or the player may incorporate dramatic entrances and theatrical gestures.
The title "Canto XIII" refers to Canto XIII of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, a section of the epic poem The Divine Comedy.
In Dante's Inferno, Canto XIII describes the Seventh Circle of Hell, Second Ring, where the souls of those who committed suicide are tormented. They are encased within a strange, dense forest of black, gnarled trees, unable to speak unless a twig is snapped from their limbs, causing them physical pain and bleeding.
The "Canto" title (Italian for "song" or "part of a poem") signifies that Adler's piece is a musical interpretation of this specific, somber, and dramatic scene from the poem.
The allowance for the performer to incorporate dramatic entrances and theatrical gestures stems directly from the descriptive and highly visual nature of Dante's narrative in this particular canto.
Theatricality of the Scene
The scene is intensely dramatic: the souls are trapped in distorted, inanimate forms, crying out in suffering when their bodies are harmed. The performer's movements and gestures can visually represent the pain, frustration, and eerie atmosphere of the "Wood of the Suicides".
Musical Interpretation.
Samuel Adler intended the piece to go beyond a standard musical performance, allowing the flutist to use the visual medium of the performance space to enhance the programmatic elements of the work. The "dramatic entrances" could suggest the journey through Hell, and the "theatrical gestures" might evoke the twisting branches, the snapping of twigs, and the wailing souls, adding an extra layer of expression to the piccolo's wide range and varied techniques.
Adler Samuel
Samuel Adler (1928) is a highly prolific and influential American composer, conductor, and educator whose career has had a profound impact on contemporary classical music. He is recognized for a vast and diverse output spanning over 500 works and for his impactful teaching career.
Born in Mannheim, Germany, Adler and his Jewish family fled the Nazi regime, immigrating to the United States in 1939. His father was Hugo Chaim Adler, a distinguished cantor and composer.
Samuel Adler pursued his musical education at top institutions: Boston University and Harvard University. He studied composition with Paul Hindemith and Aaron Copland.
His compositions cover nearly every genre, including five operas, six symphonies, numerous concertos, chamber music, and choral works. His music is characterized by its accessible, lyrical, and skillfully crafted nature, reflecting a blend of traditional forms with modern harmonic language. He has received numerous awards, including the ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award.
Adler has held prominent teaching positions at major American universities. At the University of North Texas, he established and chaired the composition department (1958–1966). At the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he taught composition and served as chair of the department (1966–1995). In 1997, he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York.
He is the author of several widely used textbooks on music theory and composition, most notably The Study of Orchestration.