Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist is a one-act ballet composed in 1938 with a libretto by Piston and Hans Wiener; it is his only work for the stage and was premiered by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler on 30 May 1938. The work paints a short, episodic scene of a village marketplace interrupted by a visiting circus whose star, the titular flutist, enchants the townspeople. Piston himself extracted a concert suite from the ballet; the suite was first performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner on 22 November 1940.

The scenario is straightforward: siesta in the market, vendors and customers, the arrival of the circus, the flutist’s solo which seduces several women (including a wealthy widow), and a final departure of the circus. Piston organizes these events into clear, characterful tableaux rather than a continuous narrative, and the music balances light theatrical wit with genuinely crafted orchestral writing.

Musically the suite showcases fluent, economical orchestration and frequent spotlighting of the flute, along with dances (tango, minuet, Spanish waltz, polka) that sketch character without resorting to crude pastiche. Critics and fellow composers have noted that Piston’s treatment keeps the setting deliberately non-specific—“any village”—so the music reads more as comedic tableau and colorfully scored miniatures than as local pastiche.