I often get stuck at Christmas when looking for more advanced duet and ensemble options for pupils well past ‘Away in A Manger’. Jennifer Seubel's arrangement for two flutes of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite will be a great option this year.
All the well-loved melodies are here. The flute has, of course, a leading role in the orchestral music, and in many cases, such as in the ‘Chinese Dance’ and the ‘Dance of the Reed Flutes’, Seubel has used sections of the original flute parts. Players will need to be at least Grade 7 level and confident in the high octave to take on most of the movements; only the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ would work for slightly less advanced players. While the parts are always written so that Flute 1 has the melody and Flute 2 accompanies, the Flute 2 part is just as challenging technically. The players will need to work on blending their sound and playing rhythmically and tightly together, just as the flutes in the orchestral section do.
In the ‘Overture’ the challenge is to maintain the brisk tempo, while the second flute has the challenge of sustaining clear articulation throughout the staccato lines originally written for the strings. The chords of the celesta in the ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ are given to the second flute while the first has the famous melody – both must work together on crystal clarity to give the piece its special magic. The players can experiment with different tone colours in the ‘Arabian Dance’ to evoke the reed instruments used in the original.
Flute 1 has the original line in ‘Chinese Dance’, which will need brilliance and good intonation, while Flute 2 takes on the bassoon octaves and then the arpeggiated string lines – quite a workout! Seubel has struck a great balance in ‘Dance of the Reed Flutes’ between using the two flute parts of the original and swapping in the counter melody to the Flute 2 part. As in the original, feather-light articulation is required! Overall, Seubel's arrangement is a challenging and fun choice for more advanced players.
