Some time ago, I received an email from Lisa Ochoca, telling me that the flute quartet that she’s in (Flutando) had just played at Tryon Creek, Portland, Oregon, where The Lone Ar-ranger! was part of their repertoire. Lisa writes:
I just wanted to thank you for letting us perform this fun piece. It’s a joy to play and we had great comments about it from our audience afterwards.
That was now over two years back, and I was delighted to hear from Lisa again, just a few days back. This time, Lisa wrote:
’Would you, by any chance, be willing to make a flute quartet arrangement of the song "Amazing Grace" in the Bossa Nova style? Our flute quartet plays a good deal of church services and it would be nice to get a new slant on a classic sacred piece. Please let me know!’
As I haven’t actually made a specific arrangement of any ’standard’ or ’traditional’ piece as such, I’ve decided to give it a go, keeping it fairly simply, and accommodating Lisa’s original wish to turn the original 3/4 into something with a ’Latin’ feel. If it’s successful, I might try some other settings / instrumentations.
The attached picture shows Lisa with her flute quartet, Flutando - there has now been one change, in and out, in terms of personnel.

Lisa has again emailed to tell me that a recording of the piece was made on Sunday November 21, 2010, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Aloha, Oregon, as their postlude. Lisa writes:
The ladies and I were very happy that you were pleased with our sound file. Since we will most defintely play this piece over and over, I will send you a better recording when I get one!

I’ve attached the MP3 - just the first second or so was missed on the recording.

I have now included an optional Piano part. Normally this kind of instrumental ensemble is self-sufficient, but the piano part may be of use, either when one or more instruments are unavailable, or perhaps in performance, should a more ’concertante’ effect be desired, and an instrument is readily available.

Please note that each Piano part is suitable ONLY for the particular instrumental version it is included with. Each arrangement varies subtly, in key, modulation, and occasional harmony or figuration and, as such, is neither interchangeable, nor self-sufficient on its own.

It is assumed that, whichever instrument(s) might be missing, the lead is always present.

N.B. In the present economic climate, a good number of smaller ensembles understandably buy just the set of parts as, in reality, these alone are all that is needed in performance. Equally, a similar number buy both the parts and the full score. To compensate for this, I intend to reduce the cost of the full score by $4, and increase the price of the lead part by $3, a differential that wasn't available to sellers at the former SibeliusMusic.com.