The Incredible Flutist is a ballet composed by Walter Piston in 1938, his only composition for the stage. The ballet received its premiere by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler on May 30 of that year. The libretto, written by Piston and Wiener, describes a marketplace teeming with activity and enlivened by a circus. A flutist acts as a snake charmer and also charms women. A rich widow flirts with a merchant, is discovered by her lover, faints, and is revived by the flutist's music. The circus then leaves the square.
Piston extracted an orchestral suite from the ballet, which was premiered on November 22, 1940 by the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner. The suite is in thirteen movements:
Elliott Carter has commented on how Piston avoided the use of particular musical geographic "pastiche" style in the music, which could have made the setting specific to one geography, and noted that the village can be "any village" in this setting.