20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Jóhannsson Magnús Blöndal
Aitken, Robert
Amirov, Fikret
Amlin, Martin
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bacri, Nicolas
Baker, Michael Conway
Baksa, Robert
Barber, Samuel
Barrere, Georges
Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Baton, René-Emmanuel
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
Berio, Luciano
Bernofsky, Lauren
Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
Bon, Maarten
Bonis, Mel
Boughton, Rutland
Boulanger, Marie-Juliette
Boulez, Pierre
Bourdin, Roger
Bournonville, Armand
Bowen, Edwin York
Bozza, Eugène Joseph
Bréville, Pierre
Brings, Allen
Brotons, Salvador
Brown, Elizabeth
Brun, Georges
Burkhard, Willy
Burton, Eldin
Büsser, Henri
Camus, Pierre
Carmichael, John
Carter, Elliott
Casella, Alfredo
Chaynes, Charles
Clarke, Ian
Colgrass, Michael
Colquhoun, Michael
Copland, Aaron
Corigliano, John
Cortese, Luigi
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Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
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DeLaney, Charles Oliver
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Dinicu, Grigoraș
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Dohnányi, Ernő
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Foss, Lukas
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
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Gaubert, Philippe
Genzmer, Harald
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Glass, Philip
Glière, Reinhold
Golovin, Andrei
Gordeli, Otar
Grier, Lita
Griffes, Charles Tomlinson
Grinblat, Romuald
Grovlez, Gabriel
Guarnieri, Mozart Camargo
Gubajdulina, Sofia
Hahn, Reynaldo
Hailstork, Adolphus
Halphen, Fernand
Hanson, Howard Harold
Harberg, Amanda
Harbison, John
Harsányi, Tibor
Harty, Hamilton
Heiss, John
Heith, David
Henze, Hans-Werner
Higdon, Jennifer
Hindemith, Paul
Holliger, Heinz
Holmboe, Vagn
Honegger, Arthur
Hoover, Katherine
Hosokawa, Toshio
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Hüe, Georges Adolphe
Hurel, Philippe
Ibert, Jacques
Ichiyanagi, Toshi
Ittzés, Gergely
Ives, Charles
Jacob, Gordon
James, Bob
Jemnitz, Sándor
Jirák, Karel Boleslav
Jóhannsson, Magnús Blöndal
Jolivet, André
Jongen, Joseph
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid
Kay, Ulysses
Kelterborn, Rudolf
Ķeniņš, Tālivaldis
Kennan, Kent Wheeler
Kennedy, Martin
Kernis, Aaron Jay
Khachaturian, Aram
Kocsár, Miklós
Kodaly, Zoltan
Koechlin, Charles
Kornauth, Egon
Kraft, Leo
Krzywicki, Jan
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Lauber, Joseph
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Mahler, Gustav
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Martino, Donald
Martinů, Bohuslav
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Perle, George
Petrovics, Emil
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Roussel, Albert
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Smit, Leo
Tailleferre, Germaine
Takemitsu, Tōru
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Tansman, Alexandre
Tomasi, Henri
Tower, Joan
Uébayashi, Yuko
Varèse, Edgar
Vasks, Pēteris
Weigl, Vally
Weinberg, Mieczysław
Wilder, Alec
Williams, Ralph Vaughan
Yi, Chen
Yun, Isang
Zgraja, Krystof
Solitude for flute solo
Solitude for flute solo
Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson: Solitude for flute solo was written in 1983 and dedicated to Manuela Wiesler.
After a decade-long hiatus from composing (1971–1980), Jóhannsson returned to music with a series of works that abandoned his earlier avant-garde and serialist methods. Jóhannsson stopped composing entirely following the death of his wife and a subsequent battle with alcoholism. Jóhannsson himself described the piece as an expression of a "certain serenity" rather than self-pity. It reflects the quiet, focused environment of his recovery and his new, simplified musical language.
An unusual part of the work's history is its unofficial "premiere" to its dedicatee, Manuela Wiesler. After completing his rehabilitation, Jóhannsson called Wiesler and performed the entire piece for her on a synthesizer over the telephone to re-establish his connection to the musical world.
Solitude is a prime example of this later period, characterized by a more neo-romantic lyricism and a simpler, more expressive musical language.
Earlier in his career, Jóhannsson was the first Icelandic composer to employ serialism and electronic music. Solitude serves as a reflective, solitary bookend to his more radical early works.
Critics and scholars often describe the work as "calming" and "healing," moving away from his earlier, aggressive avant-garde style toward a more poignant, lonely evocation of peace.
Jóhannsson Magnús Blöndal
Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson (1925–2005) and Icelandic composer, recognized as the country’s first avant-garde composer and a pioneer of electronic music.
Born in Skálar, he began composing and improvising at the age of four. He studied at the Reykjavík College of Music and later attended the Juilliard School in New York (1947–1953), where he studied composition with Marion Bauer.
In 1950, he introduced the twelve-tone technique to Iceland with his piano work Fjórar abstraksjónir (Four Abstractions). In 1958, he composed Elektrónísk stúdía (Electronic Study), the first Icelandic work to employ electronic sound.
He was a founding member of Musica Nova in 1959, an influential collective dedicated to promoting contemporary music in Iceland. Additionally, he served as a conductor at the Icelandic National Theater and a producer for the Icelandic State Broadcasting Service (RÚV).
After the death of his wife in 1971, he entered a nearly decade-long period of compositional silence. Returning to composition around 1980, his later style shifted toward a simpler, meditative, and neo-romantic language. Key works from this period include Adagio for strings and the solo flute piece Solitude.
Beyond his modernism, he remains popular for his song Sveitin milli sanda, which is deeply embedded in Icelandic national identity.