Fastnet Rock
Flute Solo - Digital Sheet Music

Flute,Piano - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1042377

Composed by Jamie Farrow. Classical,Contemporary. Score and part. 12 pages. Jamie Farrow #647168. Published by Jamie Farrow (A0.1042377).

This is a piece for flute and piano duo. Fastnet Rock, home to the Fastnet Lighthouse, is Ireland’s most southerly point situated in the Atlantic Ocean, famous for massive waves that engulf the island during storms. Three photographs (see below) and the lighthouse’s history were my inspiration for this duet, with the different images and ideas that they created, influencing my composition’s structure, themes and ideas at play. The piece starts at sunset and finishes at sunrise, with four sections each representing a different moment that follow a gradually developing structure through the first three sections before a gentle reprise of the ideas from Section 1 (S1) in Section 4 (S4). This gives a cyclicity to the piece, furthered by the tonal regions explored in each of the sections; Ebmaj to Amin to Bmin to Amin to Ebmaj. S1 invokes thoughts of the colours of sunset It is divided into four sub-sections, characterised by either solo flute or flute with piano, with each section exploring a different range of colours generated by their keys. Throughout, accidentals provide additional colour reminiscent of light diffracted during a sunset with the piano in the duo section voiced low in its range adding warmth explored through pivot chords. The flute plays in a very free recitative style, allowing the flautist individual expression emphasising the organicity of sunset as each performer will express this section differently. Section 2 (S2) and Section 3 (S3) are closely related, focusing on night-time through to sunrise in S4, with S2 providing the build up to the events of S3. In S2 the piano plays at the extremes of its range with widely spaced chords and no sense of beat, creating stillness and a sense of uneasiness through the constantly and irregularly beating A. The flute represents the rising storm and wind playing an organically-evolving motif beginning low in range, before gradually adding more notes and slowly rising, eventually reaching a dramatic climax which explores the extremities of its range whilst accelerating into S3. The drama and large gestures of S3 represent an Atlantic storm, a wall of oscillating sound through repeated piano ostinatos and constant use of the sustain pedal. Coupled with the frequently changing time-signature creating a sense of wild waves rolling in the ocean, the chordal bars percussively suggesting waves hitting the island. The flute captures the drama and emotion of the storm and the whistling wind, with long rising and falling gestures exploring the instrument’s very extremities. S4 brings the morning after the storm. We hear the same flute idea as in S1, this time played in the sadder Amin, communicating a sense of loss and despair following the storm. The piano emulates the now gently lapping waves against the rocks of Fastnet with the triplet motif in the bass. The right-hand of the piano plays a chordal accompaniment as in S1 but much slower, representing the slowly emerging colours of a sunrise which become richer and richer like the chords before the sunrise in the final few bars with a move into Ebmaj.