Percy Grainger on Fred. Delius

I recently discovered this short piece by the Australian composer and pianist, Percy Grainger. It may be a little sycophantic, but it does deserve to be recalled.

'Frederick Delius’s Pianoforte Concerto in C minor is to my mind the most important, the most deeply musical and emotionally significant concerto produced for several decades.  It is not merely a fine pianistic concerto, but apart from all that a glowing representative work by one of the greatest creators of all time. To many keen observers of modern compositional developments, the great Frederick Delius seems to tower above most of all his contemporaries because of the irresistible emotional power, passion, and inner sincerity of his creations. A wizard in orchestration, a harmonist second to none, it is the humans soul behind all his other marvellous qualities that marks him out as a genius among geniuses, and makes him so particularly touching and endearing, and accounts for the unique position among modern composers held by Delius in England, Germany, Holland and elsewhere, and the extraordinary international vogue of such complex creations as Brigg Fair, Paris, Dance Rhapsody, Sea-Drift, Appalachia, Mass of Life, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, etc.

His polyphony is marvellous and has an indefinable Bach-like quality that is no less noticeable in his emotional make-up and in the non-effect-seeking sincerity and depth of his whole being and utterance.  His artistic soul is akin to great cosmic men such as Bach, Wagner, Goethe, Walt Whitman, Milton – he is most at home in great broad lines, and his work glows with a great lovingness, almost religious, in its all-embracing and cosmic breadth'.

From Great Pianists on Piano Playing edited by James Francis Cooke Theo Presser 1913 [with minor edits]

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Ian Venables: Latest News and a backward glance.

I have often mentioned the works of Ian Venables in this ‘blog’ – in my opinion he is one of the most vital composers of our time. The reason for this importance is, I guess, is the balance of his musical language. There are a number of trajectories at work in many of his compositions which include but are never limited to, English ‘pastoralism’, a largely traditional musical language that is not afraid of being dissonant and chromatic when appropriate and an innate ability to communicate his thoughts to the listener.

Ian has been kind enough to let me quote a number of paragraphs from his excellent website.  All in all it is good to see him busy, being successful and adding to the store of fine music.

The opening concert at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival of Music saw the long awaited premiere of the composer’s chamber cantata Remember This Op.40. Commissioned by the Birmingham based ‘Limoges Trust’, the work is a setting of Sir Andrew Motion’s poem, which was written in 2002 to commemorate the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The cantata was given its premiere by Allan Clayton (tenor), Caroline McPhie (soprano), The Elias String Quartet and Tom Poster (piano) and was recorded by the BBC. Remember This was enthusiastically received and Christopher Morley, music critic for the Birmingham Post wrote, “The music of … Ian Venables has never failed to grip the listener with its accessibility and ability to communicate, and its fearless use of a tonality we all understand. Frequently working through the vocal medium, his choice of poetic texts has found in him a response which illuminates the message, laying the words so naturally upon the singer, stretching the vocalist whilst never creating impossible demands. Its effect was spell-binding, not only thanks to the performances of the soloists….but also to the sheer quality of the music itself. Earlier we had heard MacPhie gloriously radiant in Faure’s La Bonne Chanson, and Clayton so compellingly controlled in Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge, a direct ancestor of what is certainly Venables’ masterpiece at this time”. The BBC recording of Remember This was broadcast on Radio 3 on the 24^th August; on Bavarian Radio on the 10^thSeptember and most recently on Swedish Radio P2 on the 22^nd November 2011. (See Reviews).  

The main focus of 2012 will be the composition of a song cycle for the acclaimed baritone Roderick Williams. This work has been commissioned by the prestigious Malvern Concert Club, with generous financial assistance from Ernie Kaye. The new cycle is scored for string quartet and piano and is the composer’s first chamber work for the baritone voice. Although it is in its early stages, the principal linking subject through the cycle is a celebration of the poetry of ‘place’ and the poets of Worcestershire. For the work’s premiere in May 2013, Roderick Williams will be joined by the Carducci String Quartet and pianist Tom Poster.

On Christmas Day 2011, Ian Venables began work on a commission from Kenneth R. Prendergast of a song setting for mezzo- soprano and piano. This new song will receive its premiere in San Mateo, California in August 2012. It is a setting of Francis William Bourdillon's ' The night has a thousand eyes'.

Venables’ continuing association with Novello and Company will see the publication of his large scale choral work, Awake, awake, the world is young Op.34 which was commissioned in 1999 by Charlton Kings and Cirencester Choral Societies to celebrate the Millennium. Other works to be published this year by Novello include, On the Wings of Love Op.38; Elegy for ‘Cello and Piano Op.2and the Three Pieces for Violin and Piano  Op.11.(See Music Scores)

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Dame Ethel Smyth: V for Victory

Harold Rutland wrote the the following anecdote for the Radio Times (1947):-

‘I well remember the first performance of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin & Horn and orchestra [1] in 1929 [2] which the composer directed herself. Addressing the audience from the rostrum, Dame Ethel informed us that in the course of the work the horn soloist, Aubrey Brain [3], would perform the incredible feat of playing two notes at once. The concerto then went merrily along, but just before Aubrey Brain’s great moment, Dame Ethel turned again to face us, and giving a sign that Winton Churchill has since made world-famous indicated to the delighted audience that the miracle was about to happen.'

Notes

[1] Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) The Concerto for violin, horn and orchestra was composed in 1927, near the end of Smyth’s composing career.

The Concerto was performed at the Queen’s Hall, London on Saturday 5 March 1927.  Other works included Richard Wagner’s Prelude, Lohengrin, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G and Miaskowsky’s Symphony No. 6, Op. 23.  Henry Wood was the conductor of all works other than Smyth’s Concerto.  The violinist that afternoon was Jelly D’Aranyi. 

[2] Harold Rutland would appear to have mis-remembered the date. Or was he recalling another performance.

[3] Aubrey Brain (1893-1955) was a well-respected horn player who worked with the New Symphony Orchestra, at Covent Garden and as principal of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, He remained there until retiring with ill-health in 1945. He taught horn at the Royal Academy of Music from 1923 until his death in 1955.  Ethel Smyth wrote her concerto specifically for Brain. Aubrey Brain was the father of Dennis Brain, the horn player who was tragically killed in a car accident in 1957. 

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Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide Mary Christison Huismann

To many lovers of classical music Gustav Holst is the composer of just one work- The Planets: to coin a deprecatory phrase used on Classic FM, he is ‘a one hit wonder.’ Alas, even enthusiasts are probably familiar only with a small portion of his massive catalogue of music. In spite of the enormous popularity of his defining masterpiece, the vast majority of music-lovers know comparatively little about his life and work.  Unfortunately, Holst has suffered neglect compared to his peers in both scholarly and ‘popular’ circles.  The preface to Mary Christison Huismann’s Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide suggests that this may be because either he did not found a ‘school’ or that he was a poor ‘self-publicist’.  As detailed information about Holst is likely to be well hidden in archives, both paper and digital, a guide is needed to assist with exploration of this material: Huismann’s book is an ideal companion to this search.

This book is not going to be purchased by the average classical music enthusiast: it is written, I believe, for two types of reader: the academic embarking on a major thesis, dissertation or monograph about the composer and his music, and the ‘populariser.’ By this, I mean the critic, the programme note writer or the scribblers of articles for the musical press and web pages. The ‘populariser’ may not have the resources available to someone studying at Harvard or Oxford. Information can be hard to track down: visits to the major libraries can be expensive and are likely to be infrequent. Instant access to Music Index, the RILM Abstracts of Musical Literature or the International Index to Music Periodicals may not be possible. He or she might be working at home or writing their thoughts on a train. What Huismann has achieved is to do much (but not all) of the searching in the archives for the researcher: they can then spend time following the clues rather than finding them. 

The present book is one of a series of ‘Research and Information Guides’ that have been published over the last couple of decades. These include a wide-range of composers and genres. Certainly the British music enthusiast has been well served by the volumes dedicated to Frederick Delius (2009) – also by Huismann, Benjamin Britten (1996), William Byrd (2005), and Edward Elgar (1993). Other publishers have provided similar material – one thinks of the ‘source books’ for John Ireland, Alan Hoddinott and Alan Bush, published by Ashgate Publishing. Then there are the excellent Bio-Bibliography series from Greenwood, which include volumes on Gerald Finzi, Frank Bridge and Alan Rawsthorne. All these volumes feature their own particular formats, which are largely reflected between books in the series. All are essential tools for anyone interested in these particular composers.

While the literature for Gustav Holst is relatively sparse –compared to a Mahler or an Elgar –it is of excellent quality. Anyone wishing to begin serious study of the composer could do worse than start with Michael Short’s Gustav Holst: The Man and His Music OUP 1990. This is currently out of print. In conjunction with this, Imogen Holst’s A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst’s Music, Faber 1974 and Short’s Gustav Holst, 1874-1934: A Centenary Documentation, White Lion Publishers, 1974 are essential. For musical analysis, the reader may turn to Imogen Holst’s The Music of Gustav Holst 1951, revised 1986, or Holst's Music: A Guide by A.E.F Dickinson and Alan Gibbs, 1995. Most of these books have a bibliography and references to material needed for further study. However, the ‘catalogue’ and ‘documentation’ were written more than 35 years ago. In the succeeding years much (but not enough) has been written about Holst in particular and British music in general. This era has seen the advent of the Internet, with all its potential- good and bad. Music is now heard digitally and not on vinyl. Many works by the composer are available to the listener that would have been beyond their wildest dreams more than a third of century ago. The time had come for a major updating of all this information: Huismann’s book has provided wide-ranging bibliographical information about Gustav Holst up to the end of 2009 –with a few later inclusions.

Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide is presented in three principal parts. The first section is biographical, the second is the heart of the work and contains the bibliographical material, and the third section is the discography.

The core of the book is preceded by a preface, which sets out the purpose and scope of the book. This is important, as it could be very easy to expect something from the volume that it was not intended to deliver. For example, Huismann states that there are no references to CD or LP liner or sleeve notes, the newspaper reviews are limited to those easily available in ‘reprint or electronic format’ which in practice means The Times, the New York Timesand the Manchester Guardian.

The first section has a mini-biography of Gustav Holst. This is followed by a chronological table marking important events and compositions. Huismann has included a ‘List of Works’ which is based on the above-mentioned Thematic Catalogue. It is presented by genre: - ‘Dramatic works’, ‘Orchestral and band works’ etc. This includes the Opus number where provided, the ‘H’ number, the dates of composition and revision, and finally the reference to the Collected Facsimile Edition where appropriate. I would have rather had a little more discrimination in these lists – for example, ‘Ballets’ and ‘Incidental music’ separated from ‘Operas’ and ‘Concerted works’ from ‘Orchestral’. Included in these entries are the ‘Early Works’ (Horrors), incomplete and fragmentary sketches and finally Holst’s arrangements of other composer’s music.  This is rounded off with an alphabetical listing of works.

The main part of the book, some 168 pages out of 264, is devoted to the bibliographical references. This is ordered in a comprehensive manner and covers virtually every aspect of Holst’s life and works. It is worthwhile noting some of these headings.

Gustav Holst was not a litterateur, but he did write a number of articles for periodicals. Perhaps the most elusive are ‘The Education of a Composer’ published in The Beacon in 1921 and ‘The Mystic, the Philistine and the Artist’ that appeared in The Quest in 1920. Fortunately, this was reprinted in Imogen Holst’s now out-of-print biography of her father. More significantly are the published lectures delivered by the composer to a wide variety of institutions, including Yale University and The Musical Association.  Letters and journals are referenced, although I could not find any location for Holst’s personal diaries. The only allusion is to A Scrap-book for the Holst Birthplace Museum, which contains facsimiles of a number of diary entries.

Other useful source materials noted include listings of archives such the Holst Museum and the Holst Foundation collections. The location of the composer’s holographs is also given. A section on art and photographic images of Holst and his family will be helpful for writers and publishers.

The next major section is devoted to ‘Holst’s Life and Works.’ There is a comprehensive review of biographical sources, including dictionaries and encyclopaedias. This is then followed by the main monographs on the composer’s life. Interestingly, Josef Holbrooke’s chapter in his Contemporary British Composers is not mentioned. Further subdivisions include studies of Holst’s childhood, his death and burial and obituaries.  Family members, friends, colleagues and places associated with the composer all have their sub-sections.

The composer’s career is given considerable coverage, with categories on ‘Holst as Trombonist,’ ‘Holst as Teacher’ ‘Holst as Conductor and finally as a ‘Composer’. An important section is devoted to articles presenting his musical context with citations on ‘Early English Music’, ‘Folk-song’, ‘Literature’, ‘Socialism’ and ‘Orientalism’. There are references to assessments of the composer’s reputation and his music, his compositional style and his working process.

The section of the bibliography devoted to the musical works is divided into two parts.  Firstly, there are ‘Genre Studies’ and ‘Studies of Multiple Works’ which include histories of 20^thcentury music containing sections on Holst, journalism such as Havergal Brian’s and Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music.

The second part presents bibliographical ‘plus’ references for a large number of the composer’s works. For example, the fine First Suite in E flat (H105) has six separate sub-sections – Monographs & Chapters, Articles, Reviews, Dissertations and Thesis, Scores and Videos. The only actual ‘review’ of the Suite cited is found in the September 16 1920 edition of The Times which many people will have on-line’ at their local libraries.  Most of the other articles are contained in dedicated journals such as the Instrumentalist and the Music Educator’s Journal which are probably not on-line but available in University libraries. It was not difficult to find a number of other references to this work in the Musical Times and other magazines and newspapers, but I guess that a subjective decision has to be made somewhere as to what to include, and due to space limitations, omitted. Interestingly both the entries for the ‘scores’ are web-based resources.

However the very next entry in this section is for the relatively minor ‘Part-songs’ (H48): in this instance there are only two references – both in the Musical Times. Therefore, there is a considerable disparity in the citations given for individual pieces.

There is also an imbalance of content for the major works. For example, there is only one reference each for Beni Mora, the Brook Green Suite and the Lyric Movement. The Planets not surprisingly has 66!

I was surprised that there is no bibliographical reference to the delightful Japanese Suite (the Boult recording is noted, however). King Estmere seems to warrant no dedicated citations, apart from the choral score being available on-line at the Petrucci Music Library, even though there were important reviews in The Graphic and the Musical Times.

The bibliography of individual compositions is certainly not as comprehensive as John Dressler’s fine volume on Alan Rawsthorne. When I looked up Rawsthorne’s Concerto for String Orchestra in Dressler’s Bio-bibliography I found some 55 citations. In the present volume, the St Paul’s Suiteearns a mere eight references. To be fair there are another 10 citations to this work in other sections of this book.  

The final part of the book is the discography. It has been ‘designed to pick up from where the comprehensive discography compiled by Eric Hughes leaves off’.  Hughes work was published in Recorded Sound No. 59, July 1975 and is deemed to have listed ‘all known commercial recordings of Holst’s music (plus BBC tapes etc.) from the earliest 78rpm through 1974.  Huismann qualifies her discography by suggesting hers is a ‘selective list’ limited to commercially available discs issued between 1975 and 2009: it does not include performance by school groups, ‘music clinics!’ self-issued recordings and streamed audio. This seems reasonable. However, I do worry about the ‘selective’ bit. Furthermore, it would have been good if it had been possible to include Eric Hughes listings – even as a facsimile. I imagine that it might be quite hard for most people to find a copy. I notice that Google have ‘digitalised’ this publication, but it is only available in ‘snippet view,’ which is worse than useless.  Perhaps the copyright laws prohibited ‘full view’?

The book concludes with a comprehensive index, which is divided into three parts. The first is a listing of all the music, in alphabetical order. The second is a general index of names of authors, editors and subjects. Finally, there is a Keyword Index. I find this extremely helpful as it includes a whole host of relevant entries. Some examples are ‘bitonality’ ‘correspondence’ ‘literary sources’ ‘obituaries’ ‘reminiscences’ and ‘Thaxted.’ It is a good place to begin any study of the composer or his milieu.

The book is expensive: £95 is a lot of money by any standards –although Amazon appears to have knocked a ‘fiver’ off the price. The Kindle edition is just shy of £60.  Yet, the sheer volume of up-to-date information makes this book difficult to ignore if one wishes to engage in any kind of ‘Holst Studies.’ It will become the first point of call for all research in the coming decade or so. However, institutions will retain this as a ‘reference only’ book so barring access to the e-book version, all work will have to be done in the library – unless one invests in a copy of this volume.

The book is well bound, printed with a clear type on ‘environmentally friendly’ paper. It is easy to use with the well-thought-out indices quickly guiding the reader to the relevant citations.  

Finally, (and unfortunately) I was unable to find much in the way of the author’s details, save to say that Mary L. Huismann is the Music Original Cataloger at the University of Minnesota.

I do have one huge concern about this book –and many others like it. More and more references to web-based information are included. I looked up one webpage and it had ‘disappeared’. Fortunately, it was possible to find it on the Internet Archive ‘Wayback Machine’ but not everyone will bother to do this. There seems to be a dichotomy here. As more information – journals, newspapers and scores are digitalised, the source documents are in grave danger of being archived, sold off or even destroyed. Let us hope that in 20 years time most of the excellent webpages mentioned are still accessible. The author does suggest that this element of the book is a ‘snapshot’ in time, however, more and more people will expect the web pages to remain as a permanent record. Academia will eventually have to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, I will be putting this book to considerable use over the coming years: I guess that other people will find it equally worthwhile. In spite of the price, and the reservations noted above, especially about the citations of reviews, this is an essential tool for all who wish to dig deeper into the life and times and music of Gustav Holst. 

Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide Mary Christison Huismann

Routledge Musical Bibliographies

Routledge, hardback 264 pages

IBSN 978-0-415-99525-2

£95.00

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Happy 150th Birthday, Fred Delius!

Today, 29^th January, is the celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Delius. I first discovered this composer back in the early 1970’s on a Decca Eclipse LP. Unlike many people, it was not the First Cuckoo that first impressed me, but the delicious A Song of Summer. This was played by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Collins. Included on this album was The Walk to Paradise Garden, Brigg Fair and that ubiquitous Cuckoo. I soon discovered that there was another Eclispe record that show-cased Summer Night on the River, In a Summer Garden and the Nocturne: Paris-Song of a Great City.

In 1973, whilst travelling on the back of a lorry to my summer job at a builders yard, I heard the Piano Concerto on Radio Three. It bowled me over. It has remained a favourite ever since.

Five pieces that I have come to love over the years. Any of them could be a ‘Desert Island Disc.’

1.       A Song of Summer

2.       Piano Concerto

3.       In a Summer Garden

4.       Summer Evening

5.       Summer Night on the River.

For anyone wanting an introduction to Delius’ music I could recommend nothing better that Sir Thomas Beecham’s recordingson EMI. The piano concerto is available in a number of recordings including the original version on Hyperion.

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Proms 1951: An Old Programme

I always buy old concert programmes if I see them going reasonably cheaply in second-hand bookshops. The other night I found one dating from September 1951.  It makes fascinating reading and provides an interesting resource for anyone interested in performance history.

In those day, the front cover, which was a kind of blue-green, proudly proclaimed that ‘The BBC Presents the Fifty-Seventh Season of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts ‘ And 1951 was the year when the Festival of Britain was held in London and all across the kingdom. My programme was for the concert held on Saturday 1 September.

The inside front cover has an advert for Columbia who modestly claim to be ‘the finest name on record.’ The works being advertised were Rachmaninov’s great Suite for Two Pianos, Op.17, Arthur Benjamin’s Caribbean Dance, his Jamaican Rumba and the Mattie Rag, the ‘Popular Song’ from Walton’s Façade and finally Darius Milhaud’s Scaramouche suite. They were all played by the husband and wife duo, Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick. They were recorded well before Smith tragically lost the use of his left hand to a thrombosis. The rear cover was a corporate advert for ‘His Master’s Voice’

One of features of Prom programmes at this period were the articles by Alec Robertson entitled either ‘Next Week’s  Music’ or ‘This Week’s Music’ depending on the day of the week: they did not ‘do’ Sunday concerts in those days.  Robertson ‘looks forward’ to an all Brahms night, to Scheherazade, to Delius Sea Drift and Elgar’s Enigma Variation.  He noted that there were only two concertos in this coming week- Alan Rawsthorne’ s Violin Concerto and Lennox Berkeley’s Piano Concerto in B flat.  He notes that both of them have ‘a large misuser of lyricism that betokens ‘warmth of heart not always hitherto apparent in their music, and very welcome it is.’  One major ‘novelty; to be heard was Alan Bush’s Piers Plowman’s Day.  This was a symphonic suite in three movements evoking the atmosphere of three different facets of medieval life as describe by William Langland in his The Vision of Piers Plowman. A work appears to have disappeared from trace – but perhaps more about that in a later post.

Back to Saturday’s concert: the BBC Symphony Orchestra were performing under Sir Malcolm Sargent. The soloists were Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick – hence the advert.

There were six works in the programme. The first part opened with Roger Quilter’s A Children’s Overture with its delightful compendium of well known tunes – ‘Boys and Girls, come out to play’, ‘Dame, get up and bake you pies,’ ‘I saw three ships come sailing by,’ 'Baa Baa black sheep' and 'Oranges and Lemons'.  This was followed by an extract from Verdi’s opera Un Ballo in Maschera.  Cyril smith was the soloist in Grieg’s ubiquitous Piano Concerto in Minor.  The last work before the interval was Tchaikovsky’s Overture-Fantasia, Romeo and Juliet.

At ‘approximately’ 9.5p.m.  Smith and Sellick gave a performance of Camille Saint-Saens’ well-loved Le Carnaval des Animaux for two pianos and orchestra.  The concert concluded wth Ottorino’s delightful realisation of Rossini’s melodies in La Boutique Fantastique. Sargent chose to play the suite, which contained some of the most attractive movements in including the ‘Tarantelle’, the ‘Mazurka’, the ‘Danse Cosaque’ and the ‘Can-Can’.

A very useful page in the programme gave details of forthcoming ‘novelties.’ This included the already noted work by Alan Bush, Ernest Bloch Scherzo Fantastique and Peter Racine Fricker’s Symphony No.1, which was receiving its first London performance.

A list of artists making their first appearance at a Prom makes interesting reading. These include Herbert Downes, one-time principal of the Philharmonia Orchestra, the contralto Kathleen Joyce, the Welsh bass Howell Glynne and the cellist Vera Canning.

Finally, a list of members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra concluded the material in the programme.  One name that sprang out at me was Sidonie Goossens, the harpist.

Moreover, all this information cost the princely sum of 6d (2½p) which I guess was quite a lot in those days. A man’s wage was probably less than £4 a week.  I paid 50p for this fascinating piece of ephemera.

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Peter Hope: Geordie Tunes

One short piece that caught my ear recently was the delightful Geordie Tunes for descant recorder and harpsichord by Peter Hope. They feature on a new CD of works by North Country composers released by Prima Facie. The work consists of five ‘straightforward’ arrangements of Northumberland tunes. I am afraid that I did not recognize the first three, however Peter Hope has kindly sent me this list:-

The five ‘movements’ are based on ‘Go to Berwick, Johnny’, ‘Bonny at Morn’, ‘Fairly Shot of Her’, ‘Blow the Wind Southerly’ and ‘Bobby Shaftoe’. For many listeners these ‘tunes’ will bring mind the late Kathleen Ferrier: certainly the beautiful ‘Blow the Wind Southerly’ for which she was justly renowned. 

The composer told me that the genesis of the ‘Tunes’ goes back to the 1970s when he ‘collected’ a number of North Country folk tunes with the intention of making orchestral arrangements of them.  This work was not realised. Eventually, in 2009 Hope rediscovered the melodies and felt they would make an excellent set of ‘easy’ recorder pieces.

It is fair to say that these pieces are not simple. It is true that there is little development or variation, but that is not the purpose of the suite. Peter Hope has suggested to me that that the invention there is contained in the idiomatic harpsichord part. I imagine that soloists will have to take great pains in any performance of this work.  I remember a well-known musician once telling me an old adage – easy notes hard to interpret: difficult notes, easier to ‘fake.’ It may not be 100% guaranteed, but it serves as a warning.

One reviewer of a live performance has noted that these ‘tunes’ are ‘delightful and unpretentious, these miniatures are utterly charming, and make a fine entertainment, which pleased us all.’ It is a good analysis. 

There is at least two other arrangements of this work. The first is scored for descant recorder, oboe, guitar, string quartet, harpsichord and piano: Hope doubts that the work will be performed in that format again! The second is for descant recorder, string orchestra and harp. The published version is for descant recorder (or oboe) & piano (or harpsichord with optional cello.

Geordie Tunes was first performed on 2nd October, 2009 in Bury Parish Church with John Turner, recorder, Ian Thompson, harpsichord and Jonathan Price, cello.  

Finally, it is no secret that John Turner suggested the title of the work to the composer. It was an inspired choice. 

The Geordie Tunes are available on Recorder Fireworks PRIMA FACIE PFCD010. The work (in its original version) is published by Forsyth’s of Manchester.

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