A Night Piece, for flute & strings

• Date: 1922
• Composer: Arthur Foote
• Period: Romantic (1820-1869)

Review

Arthur Foote was an American often associated with a group of composers known as the Boston Six, the others being Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, George Chadwick, and Amy Cheney Beach. This enclave is important in the development of American music because its members were among the first to write first-rate serious music that at least partially broke from European styles. Known for his songs and chamber music, Foote was one of the more important of the group, and this work, A Night Piece, is one of his most popular and most representative compositions. That said, its music may be better-known in its original guise, as the Nocturne section of Foote's 1918 Nocturne and Scherzo, for flute and string quartet. The larger scoring here was done at the behest of conductor Pierre Monteux. A Night Piece may be slightly more atmospheric than the original in capturing the somewhat wistful exoticism of the main theme. When the strings take up the melody after the flute's rendition of it, they impart a greater sense of warmth. The livelier alternate theme is playful and sweet, perfectly matched by Foote to the perky sonorities of the flute. Lasting about eight minutes, the work is subdued throughout, its Romanticism slightly cool and Delian-sounding, and its writing, especially for the flute, quite deftly imagined. ~ Robert Cummings, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Alexa Still, Flute	1991
Blue Ridge Parkway	2005
From the Hudson Valley	2000
Julius Baker and Colleagues in Orchestra and Chamber Music Performances
Mark Sparks plays Works by Gershwin, Casella, Muczynski, Foote, Hoover, Martin & Hindemith	1998
Night Piece-Quiet Classics	1996
Panorama pour flute et orchestre	2004
Romantic Approach	1999
Romantic Approach: A Special Collection of 20th Century American Music	1994
Susan Hoeppner: Flute	1993
The Romantic Flute	1994
Twentieth Century Works for Flute and Orchestra	2002
Voyage	1999

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