Written for the SRP Scottish Festival 1998, these pieces are as diverting as they are diverse. All except the opening ‘Snappy Dance’ have metronome marks for your guidance. The other titles are ‘Dreamy Waltz’, ‘Bluesy Dance’, ‘Wonky Waltz’ and ‘Latino Dance’. The ‘Wonky Waltz’, which is in a mixture of 5/4, 3/4 and 2/4 times, may have you treading on each others’ toes, though the dance-floor is a nice smooth, firm bass line. Scottish bass players are evidently more entitled to warning accidentals in the next bar following some inflections, than other players who must keep alert as the tone changes immediately across the barline from flatted F to F-natural or from F# to F-natural. Like these few obstacles, all this music is good fun and well worth any trouble you might have putting it together. There are many nice touches, my favourite being a jazzy figure that tenor and bass do together in the ‘Latino Dance’. Recommended to all, whatever side of whatever border they play on.
Paul Clark: Recorder Magazine, Summer 2000Back to Opening page
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