Six Duets for Two Flutes, Op. 58

Originally written for two cellos, James Hook’s duets are cheerful and carefree; a great source of material for use in lessons. Varying in style, these Classical works offer the opportunity for players to explore and engage with different musical characterisations, with numerous examples of Tempi di Menuetto and lyrical sustained adagios. These duets could be used to enhance performance for players between grade 3–5 or be used as great material for sight reading for those who are more advanced.

These duets offer flexibility for teachers, particularly in group sessions, allowing students of varying experience to play parts that can challenge some and reward the more advanced with material to explore musical characterisation. They are a fantastic source for getting pupils to work on ensemble playing and understanding the importance of listening to players around you. This arrangement is a helpful contribution to the flute repertoire and can easily be used to target dynamic contrast, ensemble balance, rhythm, and general musicality. The compound time signature of the Rondo-Allegretto in Duet 5 may prove to be more rhythmically challenging, but perseverance will reward pupils with a greater sensitivity to ensemble playing and the techniques needed to execute a convincing and assured performance.

The beauty of these duets lies in their simplicity. Easy to follow arrangements, transposed from the original cello part allow developing flautists access to repertoire that has been thoughtfully adapted for their instrument. While a greater effort could have been made to facilitate easier page turns in the individual parts, this is easily remedied by the age-old trick of using paper copies. However, the score, having been lifted from Hook’s original manuscript, is a lot more user friendly for page turning during performance, and players may even be able to benefit from seeing both parts while playing.