The Incredible Flutist Suite

Composer: PISTON, Walter
  • Piston’s Suite from The Incredible Flutist emerged from a ballet (the composer’s only work written for the stage) written in 1938 and commissioned by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fieldler.
  • The suite, consisting of 12 movements, remains one of Piston’s most-performed works.
    1. Introduction
    2. Siesta Hour in the Marketplace and Entrance of the Vendors
    3. Dance of the Vendors
    4. Entrance of the Customers
    5. Tango of the Four Daughters
    6. Arrival of Circus and Circus March
    7. Solo of the Flutist
    8. Minuet – Dance of the Widow and Merchant
    9. Spanish Waltz
    10. Eight O’clock Strikes
    11. Siciliana – Dance of the Flutist and the Merchant’s Daughter
    12. Polka – Finale
  • The story of The Incredible Flutist revolves around market day in a small country village, where a flutist comes through town and “turns out to be a charmer of both snakes and women.”
  • Listen for: the barking dog following the circus’s arrival (6th movement).1

Sources

  1. Maureen Buja, “The Flute as Magician: Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist Suite,” Interlude (2024), accessed September 29, 2026, https://interlude.hk/the-flute-as-magician-walter-pistons-the-incredible-flutist-suite/.

Cut IDs

45830 40702 19952