G A Macfarren flute music

[rosflute]

It has been a most interesting project publishing the flute music written by Sir George Alexander Macfarren. I also wrote a long article about it for the British Flute Society. It is unique in the flute player's repertoire in being music that is Classical in style [akin to Mendelssohn] and written specifically for the flute.

• Sonata
  Concerto
  Recitative & Aria
  Three Trifles
  Trio

My efforts to track down the full score of the Concerto have been unsuccessful so I am in the process of re-orchestrating it from the piano arrangement by Natalie Macfarren which, unfortunately is very well done and cleverly adapted for the piano so finding my way back to the original scoring is rather hard work!
Anyhow the take up of copies has been quite good, especially in Norway, so I hope some performances/recordings will soon be available - it's good stuff !

[matesic]

Very good to hear - do you know of any of his other chamber works that might deserve similar treatment? Who is the publisher? Did you consider publishing on imslp, or are you obliged to keep them copyright? I ask because the Fitzwilliam Museum (who held the mss) were happy for me to publish on imslp my transcripts of his string quartets, which aren't bad either. I haven't heard of any performances in the 3-4 years since, but you may have better success on account of flutists' more limited repertoire.

[rosflute]

Hi fellow Macfarren-enthusiast!
I'm sorry to hear that you have not so far heard of anyone taking up your efforts to turn them into a performance - there is such a lot of work involved in making new editions. and it is nice to be rewarded for it in some way.
I started my own publishing business in 2008 after a publisher [in Italy] tried to take all my work for 'peanuts'. Now I have quite a nice catalogue of 'forgotten' works to which I own all the copyright.
Regarding your question about other works: Macfarren's music is generally forgotten and almost all, including piano music, is in the public domain - but there are plenty of other composers deserving to be heard, including his brother Walter.
Good luck with your work