The combination of flute and harp perhaps limits the ability of a composer to indulge in much musical development; the flute has only one voice, and asking the harp to do too much destroys its essentially delicate instrumental character. But this combination can vividly evoke the music of other times and places, from ancient Greece, to the Renaissance, to what used to be known as the Orient. Vincent Persichetti maximizes the advantages and minimizes the disadvantages in his Serenade No. 10 for flute and harp by casting the work in short, sharply characterized movements which state melody rather than develop it, and which take advantage of the sound worlds these two instruments can create. A somewhat severe atmosphere dominates the first movement, which subverts expectations about the minor emotional depth of this instrumental combination with an angular flute melody and lonely plucks of the harp. The second movement harks back to the Renaissance in the flute's cool, jaunty melody, but throws in some percussive strums in on the harp. After the third movement's beautifully flowing, intimate canon, the fourth-movement aria for flute forms the emotional center of the work. Calm, wistful, and expressive, it sounds like a memory of passion, helped along by the harp. Unpredictable rhythms in the melody spice the otherwise straightforward fifth movement, while the sixth features an athletic melody and the type of top-to-bottom runs on the harp which are normally used to provide orchestral color. The work ends with a melody that begins pointillistically, then eases into sinuous chromatics; the music seems to fade away on this note, but one final section of emphatic strums in the harp and quicksilver melody in the flute provide a resolute close. Persichetti's Serenade No. 10 uses its instruments with grace and imagination, and makes a pleasant diversion.

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