20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Levinson Gerald
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
Currier, Sebastian
Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
Damase, Jean-Michel
Davidovsky, Mario
De Lorenzo, Leonardo
Debussy, Claude
Del Tredici, David
DeLaney, Charles Oliver
Delerue, Georges
Denisov, Edison
Dèsbriere, Jacques
Dick, Robert
Dinicu, Grigoraș
Dodgson, Stephen
Dohnányi, Ernő
Dubois, Pierre Max
Dukas, Paul
Durey, Louis
Dutilleux, Henri
Enescu, George
Farkas, Ferenc
Feld, Jindřich
Ferroud, Pierre-Octave
Flothuis, Marius
Folio, Cynthia
Foote, Arthur
Foss, Lukas
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
Gade, Jacob
Gál, Hans
Gaubert, Philippe
Genzmer, Harald
George, Thom Ritter
Ghidoni, Armando
Gieseking, Walter
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
Hovhaness, Alan
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
Kupferman, Meyer
La Montaine, John
Lauber, Joseph
Lavista, Mario
Lee, Eugene
Leeuwen, Ary van
Levinson, Gerald
Liebermann, Lowell
Loudova, Ivana
Mack, Dieter
Mahler, Gustav
Maresz, Yan
Martin, Frank
Martino, Donald
Martinů, Bohuslav
Meltzer, Harold
Messiaen, Olivier
Mihalovici, Marcel
Milhaud, Darius
Mouquet, Jules
Mower, Mike
Muczynski, Robert
Nielsen, Carl
Norby, Erik
Nordenstrom, Gladys
Offermans, Wil
Olsen, Carl Gustav Sparre
Paget, Daniel
Perle, George
Petrovics, Emil
Piazzolla, Astor
Piston, Walter
Poulenc, Francis
Prokofiev, Sergey
Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Ran, Shulamit
Raphael, Günter
Rautavaara, Einojuhani
Ravel, Maurice
Reynolds, Verne
Riegger, Wallingford
Rivier, Jean
Rodrigo, Joaquin
Rota, Nino
Rotaru, Doina
Rouse, Christopher
Roussel, Albert
Rutter, John
Saariaho, Kaija
Sancan, Pierre
Schmidt, Ole
Schocker, Gary
Schulhoff, Erwin
Schwantner, Joseph
Sciarrino, Salvatore
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Sibelius, Jean
Smit, Leo
Tailleferre, Germaine
Takemitsu, Tōru
Taktakishvili, Otar
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
Odyssey for flute solo
Odyssey for flute solo
Gerald Levinson: Odyssey for flute solo was written in 1973. The piece was written for and dedicated to Beth Anderson, a flutist and contemporary of Levinson during his formative years.
The work is described as a "journey of the soul." It begins with a sense of searching, moves through a highly virtuosic and agitated middle section (the "trials" of the journey), and ends in a state of meditative stasis.
This piece is noted for its fusion of Western avant-garde techniques with the rhythmic and spiritual influences of Balinese Gamelan, a traditional ensemble music from Bali, Indonesia, primarily composed of bronze percussion instruments like metallophones, gongs, and drums. It is famously distinguished from its Javanese counterpart by its explosive energy, rapid tempo changes, and brilliant, virtuosic complexity.
The "Balinese" influence is more prominent in Levinson's later works from the late 1970s and 1980s
In 1973, Levinson was still deeply immersed in his studies at the University of Chicago with Ralph Shapey and had just finished his time at Tanglewood (1971), where he was heavily influenced by Bruno Maderna. Odyssey represents his early exploration of "blocks of sound" and extreme registral shifts before his later stylistic shift toward Indonesian textures.
The piece requires the flutist to use fingerings and embouchure adjustments to mimic the "bent" pitches of Indonesian instruments. Reflecting the Gamelan influence, the piece is not linear but cyclical, with recurring "gong-like" low notes that act as anchors for the virtuosic, high-register flights. It features multiphonics, whistle tones, and percussive key clicks, used to create a "one-person ensemble" effect.
Levinson Gerald
Gerald Levinson (1951) is an American composer and educator whose music is celebrated for its synthesis of European modernism, American lyricism, and Eastern philosophical and rhythmic structures. He is a central figure in the "Philadelphia School" of composers.
Born in Westport, Connecticut, he was raised in a culturally enriched environment that fostered his early musical interests. He began his formal training at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a student of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb. Crumb’s influence is evident in Levinson’s early sensitivity to instrumental timbre and "shimmering" textures. Following his undergraduate studies, Levinson moved to Paris to study with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire (1974–1976). Messiaen’s fascination with birdsong, complex rhythmic cycles, and "theological" color deeply informed Levinson’s harmonic language.
He also studied with Ralph Shapey at the University of Chicago and was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he worked with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Bruno Maderna.
Unlike many Western composers who used "exotic" scales superficially, Levinson achieved a deep structural integration of Balinese Gamelan techniques. This included the use of pelog and slendro tuning systems, interlocking rhythmic patterns (kotekan), and cyclical "gong-like" temporal structures. This influence reached its peak in works such as For the Morning of the World (1983) and several movements within his orchestral cycles.
He joined the faculty of Swarthmore College in 1977, where he served as the Jane Lang Professor of Music for several decades.
His musical language is often described as "spectral" yet grounded in a powerful sense of narrative journey: an aesthetic perfectly captured in his flute work Odyssey (1973).