This inveterate, snook-cocking debunker hopes "larger groups will enjoy working it into a reasonable performance with not too much trouble. Try to play the introduction and the coda as pompously as possible: after all, they are the silly bits!" There are many contrasts of texture and tessitura, starting with the Theme, whose fourth phrase receives an amusing and unexpected division. The seven variations show that the composer has a way with notes, just as much as he has with words. Variation 2 has the theme rebarred into triple time, Var. 4 (lento) strips it down to its skeleton, with continuously sliding seventh-chords for accompaniment, while Var. 6 presents it in a string of English-discant-type sixth chords over an oom- pa-pa bass. I suspect that tenor I should double tenor 2 exactly throughout Var. 7, not diverging for just one bar. This variation accompanies the tune with piled-up eleventh chords which add a final touch of saltiness. Bright, breezy and not at all difficult.
Paul Clark: Recorder Magazine, Summer 2000Back to Opening page
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