Sounding Pipes, Edition 5

When do you listen to music? Do you make time to sit down and give it your full attention, or are you a multitasker, enjoying music as an accompaniment while you do other things? I have a to confess I’m not very good at the latter approach - I tend to get distracted by the music, perpetually analysing what I’m hearing. But I do have one time each day when I can explore, and that’s when I’m at the gym or out for a brisk walk around our village.

This week I wandered the country lanes near home, listening to an eclectic mix of repertoire and I’m pleased to be able to share some of my discoveries with you in the latest of my Sounding Pipes playlist. I’ve dug out a varied selection of music, exploring the recorder’s rich repertoire. Some of the pieces are works you may have played yourself, but I hope you’ll discover some new repertoire here too.

Francesco Mancini - Sonata No.7 in C major

Francesco Mancini: Six Recorder Sonatas - performed by IJ SPACE, featuring Yi-Chang Liang (recorder), Machiko Suto (harpsichord), Asako Ueda (archlute) and Chia-Hua Chiang (baroque ‘cello). Claves CD1907

Mention the name Mancini to most people and they’ll probably think of Henry Mancini (composer of the Baby Elephant Walk and the Pink Panther theme) but his 18th century namesake is someone whose music every recorder player should explore. He was active as a teacher and composer in Naples, writing 29 operas plus a mixture of other vocal and instrumental work. His twelve recorder sonatas are beautiful works, composed so sympathetically for the instrument.

There are several recordings available of Mancini’s recorder sonatas, but this one captured my imagination with its fluidity and beautiful musical textures. Adding an archlute or theorbo to the continuo team is a stroke of genius and seems to make the music sparkle. Yi-Chang Liang is a beautiful player, adding his own exquisite ornamentation to enhance the melodic lines. I’d not come across him before, but he’s also a member of the Royal Wind Music and is evidently someone to watch.

If you don’t already know the Mancini recorder sonatas (and even if you do, for that matter!) I recommend exploring the whole of Yi-Chang Liang’s album as I’m sure you’ll find lots to inspire you. You can find a playlist containing all the tracks here.

Dick Koomans - The Jogger

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet - Pictured Air. Channel CCS8996

It’s almost thirty years since Dick Koomans composed The Jogger for the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, and in that time it’s become a classic of the recorder quartet repertoire. I remember hearing them perform it in a recital at the Wigmore Hall as a teenager and I was blown away by the sheer energy of the music. This performance is quirky combination of live performance and pop video. We see Bertho Driver, one of the quartet members, frantically running through the streets, pulling a large case (presumably full of recorders) behind him as he dashes for the tram. You can sense his heart pounding through the music, ending with a flourish of Bach and a moment of total collapse.

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer - Sonata à 7

The Royal Wind Music - Alla dolce ombra’ Lindoro MPC0712

The Schmelzer Sonata is a rarity in the recorder consort repertoire - a piece originally composed specifically for recorder consort from the Baroque era. The instrument was a popular choice for solo and chamber music, but for some reason few composers of this period chose to write consort music. Of course, there’s lots of Baroque repertoire we can play if we don’t mind borrowing from other instruments, but there’s a satisfaction to be had from performing music composed with our instrument in mind.

This Sonata is always a popular choice with ensembles, although I’ve heard many a consort come to grief in the central section, with its unpredictable fugal entries. This performance, by The Royal Wind Music, is particularly lovely - played at both four foot and eight foot pitch, in a warm, resonant acoustic. If you’ve never played the Schmelzer yourself and this whets your appetite, I made a consort video of it back in August 2020 which you can find here, along with the music. You’re very welcome to round up six friends to join you, or just play along with me!

Michael Nyman - If from The Diary of Anne Frank

Echoing Voices - Andrea Ritter (recorders) & Daniel Koschitski (piano). ARS Produktion ARS38098

The diary written by Anne Frank during her time spent in hiding from Nazi persecution between 1942 and 1944 has inspired a vast number of films and documentaries, but until this week I hadn’t come across the animated film made in Japan in 1995. The music for it was composed by Michael Nyman, including this song, If, which has been recorded in countless different ways, both instrumental and vocal.

In this particular recording we hear Andrea Ritter playing the vocal line on the bass recorder, accompanied at the piano by Daniel Koschitzki, who you may also have come across as a recorder player in the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. I defy you not to be moved by this heartbreakingly beautiful melody.

J.S. Bach Organ Sonata No.6 in G major, BWV530

Piracy: Baroque Music Stolen for the Recorder - Genevieve Lacey (recorders) & Linda Kent (harpsichord & chamber organ) ABC Classics 28948171293

Borrowing music from other instruments is something we do all the time to supplement the recorder’s repertoire and this particular piece is one I’ve played myself. Bach composed six organ sonatas in the late 1720s. Some of the movements are reworkings of earlier music (often taken from his many cantatas), but No.6 is the one work in the collection where he started completely afresh. In its original form, Bach writes three melodic lines - one for the organist’s right hand, the second for the left and the lowest voice for the pedals - and they’re all equally important. From that perspective they are ripe for transcription and this Sonata works particularly well when the right hand line is played on the recorder, leaving the keyboard player just two voices to cope with - quite enough for most mere mortals!

In this beautiful recording the Australian recorder player Genevieve Lacey pairs a tenor recorder with a Baroque chamber organ (played by Linda Kent) and this subtle pairing means it’s tricky at times to know where the voice of the recorder ends and the organ begins - they’re just perfectly matched.

J.S. Bach - Orchestral Suite No.3 - Ouverture

Orchestral Suites Nos.1-4: Ton Koopman & Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Deutsche HM G010003033955W

While my Sounding Pipes playlists are always predominantly going to feature the recorder, sometimes I like to include other mediums, especially if there’s a connection to the other resources I share with you. My consort for this week was the Rondeau from Bach’s 2nd Orchestral Suite and in my accompanying Hints & Tips video I suggest you get into the habit of listening to good recordings of music to gain a better insight into the type of articulation and phrasing used for Baroque music. I couldn’t resist sharing such a recording here and I plumped for the Ouverture from Bach’s 3rd Orchestral Suite - my favourite of the four. This is one of Bach’s most extravagant pieces of orchestral music, featuring oboes, bassoon, trumpets and timpani alongside the strings, but the performance practices used are just the same as in the smaller scale music we play on the recorder.

While reading about the Suites I was interested to learn that Bach probably added the wind instruments later to enhance his string writing. When deciding which recording to share here I found I was too attached to the richer orchestral sound, but if you’re intrigued to hear Bach’s pared down original you can find it here, directed by Lars Ulrich Mortensen.

If you enjoyed playing the Rondeau I shared over on my Consorts page, you can listen to the original version for flute and strings here and, just for good measure, all four Orchestral Suites can be found here! You can never have too much Bach….

The Fool on the Hill

Tali Rubinstein - recorders

It’s become something of a tradition for me to share a more lighthearted piece in each of my Sounding Pipes playlists and this fun video by Tali Rubinstein immediately caught my attention when it was suggested to me by the YouTube algorithm. Long time readers will know I’m a fan of The Beatles, and Paul McCartney plays the recorder in their original version of this song. If you want a quirky fact to share with friends (who knows, it might come in handy in a pub quiz one day too…), he was taught to play the recorder by Margaret Asher, mother of actor Jane Asher, when he lodged with the family in the early 1960s. To this day he often uses the instrument in his solo albums.

Tali Rubinstein’s recording of The Fool on the Hill has clear echoes of The Beatles’ original, but she adds her own virtuosic flair, even sneaking in a snippet of Here Comes the Sun along the way. Whether this is your favourite sort of music or not, I defy you not to be smiling by the time you reach the end!

So there you have edition five of Sounding Pipes - hopefully you found some inspiration and entertainment along the way. If you’ve discovered some recorder shaped gems through your own musical explorations do share them in the comments below so we can all share the enjoyment!

A Bounty of Byrd

I don’t know about you, but the idea of commemorating the year a composer died has always seemed an odd one to me - surely the year of their birth would be a greater reason for celebration? That said, I guess noting both dates gives us two excuses to mark the existence of the greatest composers so maybe I shouldn’t quibble!

William Byrd

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of two noteworthy Renaissance composers - William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes. The two composers may have died in the same year, but they hailed from different generations and lived very disparate lives. Byrd (born around 1540) remained a devout Catholic throughout his life (despite working for a Protestant monarch who banned catholicism) and lived for more than eighty years. Weelkes, on the other hand was a notorious drinker, named as the most disorderly member of staff at Chichester Cathedral. This came to a head in 1617 when he was dismissed as organist and choirmaster for ‘drunkenness and outrageous blaspheming’. No doubt his baudy lifestyle took its toll and he died in November 1623 at the tender age of 47. I recently shared a beautiful choral work by Weelkes which was performed at the Coronation of King Charles III and his music is absolutely worthy of further exploration.

Of course today William Byrd is undoubtedly the more highly admired composer and it’s his music we’ll explore in this edition of the Score Lines blog. Byrd composed a vast array of both sacred and secular music for voices, but it’s his music for viol consort which is perhaps most often borrowed by recorder players. Compared to his choral output, the viol consorts are few in number, but exquisite in quality. When you begin studying the Fantasias you quickly realise there’s barely a superfluous note among them and he’s a master at developing simple themes into glorious polyphonic writing.

I’ve selected my favourite pieces from Byrd’s consort output to share with you and have found some beautiful recordings for you to explore - some played on recorders, others performed as Byrd intended on viols.

Fantasia I à 4

The first of Byrd’s four part Fantasias is an exquisite example of how to weave something magical from simple ingredients. Starting with a rising scale he explores its possibilities, combining the voices together in different ways before inverting the idea and falling again. Don’t be misled by this apparent simplicity though - after lulling the players into a sense of calm he introduces some wonderfully funky syncopated rhythms which will give any musician pause for thought! The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet create a wonderfully sonorous effect with their low consort of recorders, making the whole thing sound effortless.

If you’d like to try playing this for yourself I shared it as one of my Consort Videos back in January 2021 and you can find both the music and video here.

Fantasia II à 6

This was the piece which really won me over to Byrd’s music - until we played it with the Hampshire Recorder Sinfonia I’d always found his music rather dry. Playing it with an orchestra of larger recorders (treble down to contrabass) the sound was enticing and I quickly realised this was far from being starchy consort music. In reality this Fantasia is packed with dance rhythms and even squeezes a snippet of Greensleeves in for good measure.

The bFIVE Recorder Consort capture the many characters of Byrd in their performance and you really get an understanding of the complex nature of his rhythms.

https://youtu.be/63KfutdJA3c INSERT VIDEO BLOCK

Fantasia III a 6

Compared to the previous piece, Byrd’s third six voice Fantasia is initially darker and more mellifluous. This time he begins with a simple falling arpeggio pattern and in the passage that follows you’ll hear a smattering of false relations. These are places where minor scales rise and fall simultaneously, creating direct clashes between sharp and natural versions of the same note. It’s a particular feature of English music from this period (you’ll find them in the music of Tallis and later in Purcell too) and adds a piquancy to the harmonies. Eventually the sonorous sound world gives way to a series of rustic dances and this wonderful recording by the Phantasm viol consort brings a real sense of joy and energy to them.

Phantasm - viols https://youtu.be/o-dbgl8ZZ8U

Fantasia II à 3

Byrd’s three part Fantasias may not share the lush texture of their larger scale counterparts, but they’re just as skilfully crafted. In the space of just two minutes Byrd whittles out no fewer than five musical ideas, playing endlessly with the rhythms. At a one point Byrd has one voice playing triple time rhythms while the others remain doggedly in duple time, yet it still feels like a coherent whole. In the extract below you can see the triple rhythms marked with red brackets, while the blue brackets show the duple rhythms which run in parallel.

Piffaro

https://youtu.be/Dw4flKaVmgk

The three part Fantasias are a great place to start if you’re new to Byrd’s consort music, with a more minimalist style and fewer rhythmic complexities. Subscribers to my Score Lines newsletter will find all three in your Members Area. If you’re not a subscriber and would like access to these and lots of other exclusive resources you can join, free of charge, here.

Pavan and Galliard à 6

Byrd composed many Pavans and Galliards for keyboard, but there’s one lone pairing for viol sextet. In typical Byrd fashion, this is anything but a straightforward example of these dance forms. He shoehorns triple rhythms against the duple meter of the Pavan, while the Galliard is an endless conversation between the two highest voices.

Fretwork

https://youtu.be/3C4D7HqXCFk

Browning - The Leaves be Green

Perhaps the ultimate example of Byrd’s consort writing is his set of variations on Browning, a song popular during his lifetime. I’ve written a whole blog post about the different ways composers have used this theme in their writing, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to share it again. The music may be based on an eight bar melody, but Byrd creatively weaves his magic, leading the musicians in ever decreasing circles and increasingly complex cross rhythms.

If you fancy playing Browning in the comfort of your own home you’ll find the music and a Consort Video of it here. You’re welcome to use it with friends, but if you prefer you can always dip your toes into these syncopated waters with my video, safe in the knowledge I won’t hear any mistakes you may make!

To complete my exploration of Byrd’s consort music we have a fabulous live performance by The Royal Wind Music, played on a double consort of four and eight foot pitch recorders.

https://youtu.be/oMzyMu20uRY

Have I whetted your appetite to explore more of Byrd’s consort music? Or maybe you’re already a fan? I’d love to know which of his works are on your desert island list - perhaps your favourite is one I haven’t shared here? Do leave a comment below to share your favourite music and recordings.

Sounding Pipes Edition 4

During my long train journey back from Edinburgh last week I whiled away the hours listening to music - a handy way of blocking out the distractions of screaming babies and the couple bickering with each other across the aisle from me. Having four hours to explore music, both familiar and new, was such a luxury, rather than squeezing it in between work. It also allowed me to narrow down my choices for my fourth Sounding Pipes playlist, which I hope may inspire you to go exploring yourself.

As ever I’ve picked a mixed bag of music, with pieces from many different eras - some serious, some lighthearted - hopefully something for everyone!

Georg Philpp Telemann - Water Music - Hamburger Ebb' und Fluth

Telemann, Corelli & Bach Chamber Music - Emelie Roos (recorder), Anna Paradiso (harpsichord), Dan Laurin (recorder) and Höör Barock BIS2235

Mention Water Music and most people will think of Handel’s suites, composed for a Royal celebration on the River Thames. But did you know that Telemann composed a suite too, arguably even better than Handel’s?

Telemann composed Hamburger Ebb' und Fluth (Hamburg ebb and flood) in 1723 to celebrate the centenary of the Hamburg Admiralty. Hamburg was an important port, situated on the River Elbe, and to reflect this Telemann’s music depicts a series of mythological gods connected with water, including Neptune and Triton. We see these supernatural characters in a variety of activities - sleep, play, love and more. He uses the recorder in several movements but in this Sarabande we hear Thetis, the mother of Achilles, being lulled in sleep by two treble recorders.

I’ve been lucky enough to perform this beautiful music several times (although always playing baroque bassoon rather than recorder) and I enjoyed it so much that I’ve arranged a collection of the dances for recorder ensemble. A couple of these have featured in my consort music videos, but if these whet your appetite to try more the full collection is available here

If you enjoyed the Sarabande, the whole suite is available on YouTube as a playlist here.

Paul Hindemith - Trio from Plöner Musiktag

Fruit of a Different Vine - Alison Melville, Nathalie Michaud & Colin Savage (recorders) Atma Classique ACD22206

In the early days of the recorder’s twentieth century revival contemporary music for the instrument was pretty sparse. Carl Dolmetsch played a significant role in expanding the range of fresh solo repertoire by premiering new works in each of his Wigmore Hall recitals - for instance the Lennox Berkeley Sonatina I wrote about in my last Sounding Pipes playlist.

In Germany the recorder was also garnering interest, perhaps most notably with Peter Harlan, a guitarist and instrument maker. After attending a concert at the Haslemere Festival Harlan saw the potential of the instrument and purchased a set of the recorders Arnold Dolmetsch had recently begun making, with the intention of making his own when he returned home. Unfortunately he didn’t realise these instruments were pitched at A 415, so the bottom note of the treble sounded to his uninformed ears like an E at modern concert pitch. If he followed this logic he would have made a consort of recorders pitched in E and B (rather than the familiar F and C), but of course that meant any music ended up with key signatures containing lots of sharps - hardly ideal. Harlan’s compromise was to make recorders in D and A, which could at least play easily with string instruments.

It was this misunderstanding which led Paul Hindemith to compose a trio for a music day held at a school in Plön in 1932 for recorders in A and D. Hindemith performed it with two friends, but the score indicates it can be played by single or by multiple players per part. Of course, the requirement for recorders at an unusual pitch meant this piece was rarely played in Britain until the composer gave permission in 1952 for Walter Bergmann to create a new edition for recorders in F and C.

Hindemith’s music may not be to everyone’s taste and I have to confess I find much of his compositional output a little uncompromising. However, his Trio for recorders has a quirky charm and is a definite favourite of mine. It has three contrasting movements which conjure up different images in my mind. The first makes me think of a bustling street scene in 1930s New York, with parping horns and some blues musicians standing on a street corner (there’s definitely a hint of Gershwin in there). The second movement has a robotic feel, and one can only wonder if perhaps Hindemith had Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic film Metropolis in mind. The Trio culminates in Sostenuto movement which, at a tempo of crotchet = 40-50, seems to absorb all the excess energy of the preceding two. In comparison to the others it has a much cooler tone, maybe casting a spotlight on more perilous corners of the city where one perhaps shouldn’t venture after dark for fear of what might be lurking among the grimey alleyways.

If the Hindemith Trio is new to you the full work is available to listen to (along with the rest of Alison Melville’s album) here and the music (in the C and F recorders version) can be found under the ‘Arrangements and Transcriptions’ tab on IMSLP.

Oliver Davis - Earth from The Elements

Arcadia - The Hanke Brothers Signum Classics SIGCD590

Apple Music launched their new classical music app the day I set off for Edinburgh - the perfect opportunity for me to have a rummage around and see if a standalone classical app makes the task of finding specific pieces and recordings simpler (it does!). While music streaming services aren’t good for the musicians who appear on them (the royalties they pay are notoriously poor) they’re a great way to browse and find unfamiliar recordings. Apple Music Classical offers the option to browse by instrument, so naturally I took a look through the offerings for recorder.

Among the many familiar pieces of repertoire I found Oliver Davis’s The Elements, composed for the unlikely combination of piano, viola, recorder and tuba. My interest was piqued and I was amazed how well this eclectic mix of instruments works in the right hands. Oliver Davis has composed for film, television and ballet, as well as concert works and his music has a distinctly minimalist feel, with repetitive rhythmic and melodic patterns.

The movement I’ve chosen to share with you is Earth, which Davis describes this way:

“I wanted to create a grounded feel so anchored the music with long pedal notes in the tuba and used a repeated rhythmic pattern in the viola to propel the music towards its climactic ending.”

I love the way he uses this unique combination of sounds to create contrasts and I think I can honestly say I’ve never heard a tuba played with such delicacy, and certainly never with a recorder before! As with many of my other suggestions, the whole album this movement comes from is available here for you to explore further.

Peter Philips - Pavan Passamezzo

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet and Sour Cream

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The Passamezzo Antico chord progression

We’re stepping back some 400 years for my next suggestion to one of my favourite pieces of Renaissance consort music. Using the Passamezzo Antico ground bass, Peter Philips weaves his magic, creating an endless tapestry of musical lines. This eight bar chord progression has been used as the basis for music by composers for centuries.

Some choose to use a tool like this as a ground bass, with an endlessly repeating pattern in the lowest instrument while the higher parts weave their magic above. But Philips takes a different approach, using the chords as the skeleton of his music and allowing all the voices a chance to take an equal role in the melodic movement.

I wanted to find a recorder consort performance of Pavan Passamezzo to share with you and it was a bonus to discover this coming together of two recorder supergroups - the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet and Frans Bruggen’s Sour Cream. The fact that they’re performing it on a low consort of Renaissance recorders is just the icing on the cake as they create a wonderfully lush timbre.

J.S.Bach - Cantata 39, Brich dem hungrigen dein Brot

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Bach’s manuscript of Cantata 39 - click to see enlarged.

Bach Cantatas Vol.16 - Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir. Challenge Classics CC72216

My next recording is one spontaneously suggested to me by Apple Music as I was travelling several months ago. Bach wrote Cantata 39 for performance in June 1726, when he was working at St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig. It’s a sacred work, with a text which implores us to be grateful for God's gifts and to share them with the needy. The slow opening section shows Bach’s mastery of orchestral writing in the way he combines the instrumental tones (two recorders, oboes, strings and choir) and I recommend you listen to it with the sound turned up to really savour Bach’s magical shifts of harmony. This is followed by a livelier section, during which I’m sure I spotted a little snippet in the recorder parts, borrowed from his own Brandenburg Concerto No.4!

A sneaky bonus… Cantata 82 - Ich habe genug

While listening to this selection from Ton Koopman’s Bach Cantata series I rediscovered another gem which I just had to include. The opening aria of Cantata 82, Ich habe genug, doesn’t include any recorders, but the music is absolutely heavenly - a simply exquisite combination of melodic lines for oboe and bass voice. The video below begins with this particular aria, but there’s nothing to stop you listening to the rest as well if the fancy takes you!

Glenn Miller - Moonlight Serenade

Flanders Recorder Quartet

I always try to include something light to complement the serious music in my Sounding Pipes playlists and this time it’s a spot of big band jazz, played by the Flanders Recorder Quartet. Although it’s perhaps best known as an instrumental piece, several different sets of lyrics were connected with the tune during Miller’s lifetime. Miller never recorded a vocal version, but it did make it onto Frank Sinatra’s 1966 album, Moonlight Sinatra. Had Miller survived World War II one can’t help but wonder whether he would have approved of Sinatra’s take on what had become Miller’s own signature tune.

The Flanders Recorder Quartet bring their own laid back approach to this timeless classic, performed at one of their last concerts together in Taiwan in November 2018. The communication between Bart, Paul, Tom and Joris is such a joy to see and I can’t help but smile at the cheeky interaction between Tom and Joris one minute and fifty five seconds in!

Scott Schultz’s Thirty Second Concerts

Browse through all of Scott’s videos here.

If you need a short twice-weekly pick me up, my last suggestion surely can’t fail to make you smile!

Scott Schultz was once a professional french horn player and during the pandemic he was looking for a way to keep himself occupied. The result was his twice weekly ‘30 Second Concerts’ which feature recorders, percussion instruments and a healthy sense of humour. Scott has three rules for the creation of these videos:

1. All technology used must have no cost associated with their use (hence the 30 second limit)

2. All instruments used must be acoustic only and preferably designed to be used by children

3. All arrangements are created by Scott from available no-cost resources

I’ve subscribed to Scott’s YouTube channel for a few months now and his humorous approach to the music never fails to make me smile. He always dresses up for the occasion and no musical genre is off-limits. At the time of writing he’s released just over 400 videos, so it’s all but impossible to pick just one. I can’t imagine how much time he must put into creating these musical moments (the costumes alone must take some time to dream up!) but they brighten my day when they pop up in my YouTube subscriptions feed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Have I succeeded in my mission to broaden your musical repertoire? I so enjoy creating these playlists as it helps me discover unfamiliar music and new recordings of pieces I know well. If there’s an area of music you’d like me to include more of in future playlists do leave a comment below - I find it inspiring to receive recommendations too!

A host of Holborne

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Anthony Holborne (c.1545-1602) is a shadowy figure as far as music history is concerned, yet he’s almost certainly a composer whose music you’ve encountered from time to time. This is largely down to a collection of music we’re going to explore together today.

Our knowledge of Holborne’s life is a patchwork of ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybes’. The University of Cambridge alumni database shows an Anthony Holborne enrolled at Christ’s College in 1562 and speculates that it may well be our composer. Three years later, a man of the same name was admitted to the Inner Temple Court, but again the details are sketchy. However, we do know he had a (probably younger) brother, William, as Anthony included several of his sibling’s madrigals in his first publication - the Cittharn Schoole in 1597. We also know that on 14th June 1584 Anthony married Elisabeth Marten at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster - now the parish church of the House of Commons. A posthumous publication describes him as a ‘Gentleman usher’ to Queen Elizabeth I, but once again, it’s not clear quite what the job entailed - he certainly doesn’t appear in any records relating to musical life at the Chapel Royal.

During his latter years he worked in the service of Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and also enjoyed the patronage of Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. We’ll encounter her again later, as we explore Holborne’s music. He was evidently well respected by his peers and the first song from John Dowland’s Second Booke, I saw my lady weepe, is dedicated to Holborne.

Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short Aeirs, both grave and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments

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This is the collection for which Anthony Holborne is best known today. Published in 1599, it contains no fewer than 65 dances and is the the largest published collection of English music to survive from this period.

It’s not clear when Holborne composed these dances, but it’s likely to have happened over a period of several years. Some of the music appears in his Cittharn Schoole, published two years earlier, and several dances also exist in lute tablature. Which version came first is something we can only guess at.

The collection is dedicated to Sir Richard Champernowne (c.1558-1622), who was Member of Parliament for West Looe in Cornwall. Judging by the dedication found in the part books, Holborne was evidently appreciative of his patronage, opening with the following words:

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“In a continued observation of your virtuous constancy in the love of Music, I have long and with great increase of reason honoured you most gentle Sir: for, even but part of my poor labours speaking in their kindly voice, from the experience of many years can feelingly witness and sing with what graceful favours they have been nourished at your hands. With this regard, I have distinctively bundled them up into a catalogue volume, accompanied with a more liberal and enlarged choice than hath at any time as yet come to your refined ears: and withal, have now made bold to present them as things not altogether unnecessary to do you pleasing service, but also to live and dwell with you under the protection of your good allowance, and the testimony of my ever-bounden thankfulness.”

Three different types of dance

Holborne’s 1599 collection contains three different types of dance - pavans, galliards and almains. Rather than simply naming the movements by dance type, he gives over half of them more creative names, although it’s clear enough which is which from their time signature. The pavans and galliards tend to appear in pairs, while the almains are grouped together towards the end of the volume, along with some other independent pieces in three-time which may be corantos.

Some of the dances are fairly straightforward examples, suitable for dancing, while others enjoy much more complex rhythms. The galliards can be particularly unpredictable, with never-ending shifts between duple and triple time, sometimes without even any consistency between individual parts. Ask anyone who’s wrestled with the complexities of The Fairie-round and they’ll almost certainly have come adrift at one time or another when rehearsing or performing this music!

Which instruments to choose?

Title page of this collection describes them for ‘viols, violins or other musical wind instruments’, which offers up a huge range of possibilities. Publishers of this period often suggested multiple instruments on title pages as an easy way to make the music appeal to a greater range of buyers. You may wish to play these dances with a recorder consort, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t also join together with friends who play the viol to create a ‘broken’ consort, mixing different instrument families.

While researching this subject I’ve discovered a myriad of recordings. There are performances which stick to one type of instrument, as well as those who mix wind and strings. Some combine bowed string instruments (viols and/or violins) with plucked instruments such as the lute or theorbo. But I’ve also encountered performances on recorders, sackbuts and cornetts, modern brass quintet and even tuba ensemble! If you really want to explore the rhythmic possibilities of this music there’s no reason why you couldn’t add a little percussion too, as you’ll hear in one of two of the recordings below. One thing’s for sure - you can play Holborne’s dances with a recorder consort with a clear conscience!

When it comes to selecting your recorders, the usual instrumentation for these dances is SATTB. However, if you’re short of tenor players, the Quintus line (the middle line of the score) will often fit the treble recorder too, albeit lying rather low in its range. The majority of the Bassus part fits perfectly on a bass recorder, and when the odd note disappears off the bottom of the instrument you can easily hop up to the octave above.

Holborne’s score writing

Partbooks published during Holborne’s life throw up one or two curiosities which are worth noting. The most significant is the way the Altus and Quintus parts of the first eight dances are inverted. As the higher voice, the Altus is the second line for the remainder of the collection, while Quintus occupies line three. All three modern editions I’ve mentioned below rectify this error so the Altus part book is always the second highest and the Quintus the line below. Quite why this quirk exists is unknown. Was it an intentional decision by Holborne, or an error by the typesetter? I doubt we’ll ever know!

Another oddity which always tickles me is Holborne’s selective use of a key signature in No.7 - a Pavan. Curiously, the B flat is only applied to the Quintus and Bassus lines in the 1599 partbooks. Looking through the Pavan, B flats only appear in these parts, so maybe this was the typesetter’s way of conserving time and ink? Once again, we have to fill in the blanks for ourselves in this story as there’s no recorded reason for this particular quirk!

Choosing an edition to play from

There are plenty of editions to be found of individual dances but I’m going to concentrate here on complete editions. There are two complete printed editions I think are worth seeking out, one more recent than the other.

Bernard Thomas’s London Pro Musica edition, LPM AH1

For a long while this was the go-to edition for Holborne, published by Bernard Thomas in 1980. I invested in this hefty box set when I was at music college and we often used it in consort rehearsals. Bernard added time signatures and bar lines, but interestingly chose to keep many of the Galliards in 6/2 rather than writing them in a more familiar 3/2 time signature. This makes hemiolas easier to spot as one voice often has three semibreves together, avoiding the need for tied notes across barlines - as you can see in the example below. It’s a clear edition with lots of detailed background notes.

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Using a 6/2 time signature (in No.38 - Galliard) helps make it clearer where the hemiolas occur, as you can see from the three semibreves in the cantus and bassus parts.

Peacock Press Edition, edited by George Simmons and Virginia VanPoole, 2011. Peacock Press PEMS014

A more recent addition to the available modern editions is this one from Peacock Press. You can buy it as a box set, but if you need extra parts in different clefs they’re available individually too. Like the previous edition, this is beautifully clear and well laid out and this is the version I use most often.

These two printed editions aren’t cheap, but there’s a pleasure to be had playing from a well thought out and clear bound copy. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure my set of the Bernard Thomas edition cost me about £30 when I bought it thirty years ago, so the current £40 price tag of either edition makes them look like inflation beaters in today’s financial climate!

Free editions:

If you’re still getting to know Holborne’s music and haven’t decided whether to splash out on a printed edition yet there are also some free download editions you can try.

New unbarred edition: I recently discovered this newish edition, edited by Ben Maloney as part of his degree at the University of York in 2019. Ben went back to the set of partbooks held at Christ Church, Oxford, which have some interesting annotations from the original publisher, to start from scratch. He’s chosen to retain Holborne’s mensuration signs (the predecessor to modern time signatures) and has left the music unbarred. This results in clearer rhythmic patterns, removing the need for ties across barlines. If you’re someone who really finds barlines helpful, Ben has added small dashes to show the start of each ‘bar’ - a handy halfway house to going fully unbarred. You’ll find the score for Ben’s edition here and the parts here.

IMSLP: If you’ve never tried any of Holborne’s music a good place to begin is IMSLP, where both Ulrich Alpers and Daniel Van Gilst have generously made all the dances available in score format. These are a good way to explore and see which ones you like - you can find them here.

Holborne’s 1599 Edition: If you want to go right back to source material, scans of the 1599 partbooks are even available. Reading from original notation isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy the challenge, or perhaps you’re just curious, I’ve collected the five part books together in one PDF file here.

My Holborne highlights

To complete my look at Holborne’s dances I’ve spent lots of time listening to the many recordings on YouTube. I’ve picked out a selection of my favourite Holborne dances for you to explore, along with a wide variety of different recordings. These include performances on recorders, but you’ll discover some less predictable instrumentation along the way too.

The Marie-golde - No.8

I’m going to begin my selection with one of Holborne’s simplest galliards, The Marie-Golde. He takes a very chordal approach with this one, avoiding too many complex syncopations, and you can imagine this being danced to. Among the more traditional performances I found this very sonorous recording by the Chromos Tuba Quartet - a combination of instruments even Holborne wouldn’t have expected when he gave such a generously broad range of options on the front cover!

Infernum - No.21

This beautiful Pavan is a fascinating mix of styles. The first two sections feature plenty of counterpoint between the parts, while the final section returns to a more chordal approach, with all five voices moving in parallel. I’ve chosen two contrasting performances, the first of which features Hesperion XXI directed by Jordi Savall. In keeping with the rather dour title, he goes for sombre viols and lute, with the addition of bass drum at key moments.

In contrast, Capella de la Torre go for a largely wind based consort featuring shawms and sackbuts, with lute and drums. The result is fabulously sonorous and I can’t wait to explore more from this ensmeble.

My Selfe - No.36

Here we have another Galliard and, one presumes, a self portrait of the composer. This is another number where you feel you could actually dance along. The tone of The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble is gentler than modern brass, but you’d still be able to hear them clearly over the sound of dancing shoes on a wooden floor.

The Image of Melancholy - No.27

If ever you need something mellow and harmonious to relax to after a busy day I can’t recommend this Pavan enough. The music begins with a steady, contemplative feel, gradually becoming more conversational as the piece draws on.

With this performance by Consort Brouillamini you get four Holborne dances for the price of one, recorded at a concert in 2019. Played on wide bore Renaissance recorders, their tone is glorious and it’s great to see this wonderful music being played before an audience.

I also discovered another performance on recorders, this time by The Royal Wind Music, directed by Paul Leenhouts. This uses a broader palette of tones, with each line doubled at the octave.

The Night Watch - No.55

Now we come to an almain, a somewhat livelier dance than the preceding pavan. This is one of Holborne’s best known dances and is sure to get your feet tapping. The Academy of Ancient Music take a relatively leisurely approach, so perhaps the watchman in question was reaching the end of his night on duty…

Wanton - No.61

Holborne doesn’t specify the type of dance here, but it’s generally assumed the triple time movements towards the end of the collection are Corantos. I love the perpetually shifting rhythmic patterns and it can be tricky to grasp where the beat is moving to next.

Bjarte Eike’s recording with the Barokksolistene takes a relaxed approach which I really enjoy.

In contrast Les Sacquboutiers chose a livelier tempo, playing cornetts and sackbuts, with some delicate percussion to emphasise the perpetually shifting meter.

The Funerals - No.31

This beautiful Pavan was inspired by a heartbreaking story, which just makes it even more moving. Holborne’s patron, the Countess of Pembroke, tragically lost her father, mother and brother in the same year, 1586, and he wrote this as a lament for their loss. The opening is section is gorgeously sonorous, with a very static bass line. Gradually the music encompasses more movement and in the final section the Bassus line takes centre stage. Les Voix Baroques and Matthew White create a heart rending sense of melancholy with a broken consort. They use a combination of instruments I would never have considered but it’s so effective and beautifully played.

Muy Linda - No.34) Galliard

Whoever Linda was, she evidently had a sense of humour if Holborne’s music is anything to go by! The music bops along, switching endlessly between simple and compound time and Holborne really has some fun in the final section. Here the Cantus, Quintus, Tenor and Bassus lines play quite happily together in 3/2, while the Altus part stubbornly sticks with a 6/4 meter. I’ve had some fun working on this with several groups recently and there’s always a degree of mirth as we wrestle with Holborne’s cross-rhythms!

The first of my chosen recordings features Les Sacqboutiers once again, with their wonderfully delicate sackbut and cornett combination, accompanied by a sparkling tambourine.

In contrast L'Achéron go for a string based approach, combining viols, cittern, bandora and ottavino, creating masses of energy but occupying a totally different tonal world.

The Fruit of Love - No.58

The Fruit of Love is another Almain, and a good place to begin if you’re new to Holborne. I featured the B-Five Recorder Consort in one of my Sounding Pipes playlists a while ago and was delighted to find more of their mellow recorder tones here.

We’ve met L'Achéron already, but here we have another video, featuring The Fruit of Love, in the trailer for their album of Holborne, as well as an introduction by their director, François Joubert-Caillet, explaining more about their approach to this music. You also get a second helping of Muy Linda at the end!

The Fairie-Round - No.63

I couldn’t complete my list of Holborne hits without including The Fairie-Round - a truly interstellar piece! As well as being littered with brain jingling cross-rhythms, this is one of the pieces NASA chose to include on the golden records they sent into space on the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in 1977. These discs were designed as a representation of human culture and achievement, should the probes ever be intercepted by extra-terrestrial life. They’re currently heading out of our panetary system, beyond Pluto, but given the vastness of space it may be some time before any aliens get to hear David Munrow’s take on this particular dance!

If that performance wasn’t energetic enough for you, do take a listen to this interpretation by Consort Brouillamini from their album The Woods so Wild. It’s played at a lower pitch than the Early Music Consort of London, but that doesn’t stop it sparkling like the sun!

Heigh Ho Holiday - No.65

My final selection just had to be Holborne’s final dance, Heigh Ho Holiday, which is full of joy. The Royal Wind Music bring buckets of energy to their performance. They begin with a sparkling four foot consort, before adding the deepest tones of the recorder world without diminishing the sense of drive by one iota.

Which is your favourite Holborne?

Perhaps you’re already a Holborne convert, playing them regularly with a consort. Or maybe you’ve made some new discoveries today and are raring to give them a try? Either way, I’d love to hear which of his dances you love the most. I’m sure you’ll agree there’s something in the collection to be enjoyed whatever mood you’re in, be it melancholic or bursting with energy. Please do drop a comment below to share your favourites and I’d love to know if anyone has played all of them!

Sounding Pipes, Edition 3

As we approach the Christmas holiday I thought I’d share another of my occasional recorder playlists for you to explore. Once again, I’ve spent some time exploring my own CD collection for inspiration, as well as noting some of the gems YouTube and my various music streaming services spontaneously offer up to me.

As you already know, I enjoy an eclectic mix of music and while all of my recommendations today include the recorder, some of them aren’t necessarily repertoire you might immediately associate with our favourite instrument! There should be something for everyone and hopefully these tracks may inspire you to explore further to widen your own listening habits.

Happy listening!

John Dowland - Lachrimae Pavan (Flow my Tears)

The Flautadors Recorder Quartet - Cynthia's Revels (First Hand 2015)

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You may well be familiar with John Dowland’s melancholic lute song, Flow my Tears, or perhaps his consort version, Lachrimae Pavan. This achingly beautiful melody became very well known and has been used in compositions by countless other composers. Jacob van Eyck wrote two sets of variations upon the melody which were published in his collection Der Fluyten Lusthof in 1644. One can imagine how doleful they must have sounded, echoing off the walls of Utrecht Cathedral as van Eyck played them to passersby in the churchyard. In this beautiful recording The Flautadors have chosen to combine Dowland’s music with van Eyck’s divisions, creating a weaving line above the sonorous harmonies.

Colin Touchin - Manchester Welcome

Three Teacher's Recorder Orchestra, conducted by Colin Touchin, 2008.

The death of Colin Touchin this autumn was a sad moment for the recorder world and I wanted to share one of his pieces with you to remember him. Colin was a friend and mentor to me for many years, and well known in the recorder world for both his compositions and conducting. I worked with Colin for nearly a decade as part of the tutoring team for the National Youth Recorder Orchestra and learnt a lot from his precise and economical conducting style. Watching this video reminded me of some the conducting techniques I learnt from Colin. All conductors ‘borrow’ ideas from each other and I fondly recall a moment in a rehearsal where Colin commented that the tenors missed their entry because he hadn’t twitched his elbow. We all chuckled, thinking that was preposterous, but when he gave a twitch on the second try they miraculously came in, bang on time! That taught me an important lesson about the importance of clear gestures when conducting and I’ll miss the opportunity to learn more from Colin in the future.

Manchester Welcome was the second time Colin had composed a piece for a Society of Recorder Players national festival. The first piece, Staffordshire Festival, came in 1991 and had no contrabass part because such large instruments were still relatively rare then. Fast forward to 2003 and we had a vast hall of players, including a phalanx of contras and Colin was able to make use of these enlarged forces to create a full scale orchestral piece. The excitement was palpable, enhanced by the fact that we were playing in the hall of the Manchester school where Colin had learnt the recorder as a youngster.

J.S.Bach / Benedetto Marcello Oboe Concerto BWV 974

Simon Borutzki, Lea Rahel Bader, Magnus Andersson & Laute Clemens Flick - Bach all’ italiano (Klanglogo 2016)

I first encountered Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor as a teenager, when a college friend of mine performed it in a concert, and its haunting melody has been a firm favourite ever since. the film director Sydney Pollack was evidently a fan too, as it appears in the soundtrack of his film The Firm - a solitary piece of orchestral music in a score that’s otherwise entirely played on the piano.

Even in the 18th century, Marcello’s music was already being borrowed for other purposes. J.S.Bach chose several concertos by Italian composers and arranged them for solo harpsichord. It’s this version which German recorder player Simon Borutzki has used to create his own interpretation for recorder. You may recall we saw also Simon in action in my last Sounding Pipes playlist, conducting the Berlin Recorder Orchestra in a Rossini Overture.

Lennox Berkeley Sonatina

Jill Kemp & Aleksander Szram - English Recorder Works (Music & Media 2013)

We take the recorder’s huge repertoire of contemporary music for granted these days, but during the early days of the instrument’s revival new works were hard to come by. In 1938 one of Edgar Hunt’s recorder students, Manuel Jacobs, wrote the following in an article in the Musical Times under the pen name Terpander:

“It cannot be too much insisted that if the health and strength of the present recorder revival is to be maintained, the revival itself must be recognised as essentially a contemporary phenomenon and contemporary music must be written for it. Seen and treated purely as an object of antiquarian interest, it will die the speedy death that all movements which reply too exclusively and too morbidly on the past and its associations deserve to die. Actually the recorder is less remarkable for its ‘antiquity’ than for the accommodating way it fits into its 20th century surroundings.”

Jacobs was obviously a very persuasive character and his efforts resulted in works for the recorder by many young composers of the day, including Lennox Berkeley, Stanley Bate, Christian Darnton, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Eve Kisch, Walter Leigh, Peter Pope, Alan Rawsthorne and Franz Reisenstein. Many of these works are still in print today, although some have aged better than others.

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Lennox Berkeley composing at the piano

Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina received an informal first performance by Carl Dolmetsch at the London Contemporary Music Centre in June 1939, just twenty years after Arnold Dolmetsch made the first modern recorder. Earlier in 1939 Dolmetsch gave the first of his Wigmore Hall recitals and, frustrated by the dearth of modern music, he composed a Theme and Variations of his own to fill this gap in the programme.

At his second recital there, in November 1939, the Berkeley took pride of place in the concert, receiving its public premiere, starting a pattern Dolmetsch would continue for five decades. At his annual Wigmore Hall recital, Dolmetsch would perform newly composed repertoire - some 32 pieces in all. I went to his final recital at the Wigmore Hall in October 1989, where he premiered Variants on a Tune of HH - a reference to the composer Herbert Howells.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Berkeley’s Sonatina. It may be one of the earliest 20th century works for recorder, but it’s stood test of time and remains a great piece of music. There may be moments which show a less than perfect understanding of the instrument (top F sharps and occasional unsympathetic chromatic passages) but I think we can forgive these at a time when the recorder’s capabilities weren’t yet well understood. I’ve shared the first movement below, but you can listen to the whole work, along with other works by Malcolm Arnold, Gordon Jacob and York Bowen here.

Guus Haverkate - The Marmalade Cat

Tom Beets & Recorders Incorporated

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Photo by Helen Hooker

Just this week I reviewed The Marmalade Cat for The Recorder Magazine so it was fresh in my mind when I started writing today. Haverkate is a composer you may well have come across, either through his other ensemble repertoire, or perhaps his modern studies for recorder. His music often has a pictorial quality, conjuring up mental images of an ongoing storyline. The laid back big band jazz style of The Marmalade Cat makes me think of a larger than life ginger tom cat sauntering along the street on a warm day, stopping occasionally for a wash and a spot of relaxation time in the sun.

Tom Beets recorded this performance with his orchestra, Recorders Incorporated, in Wells in January 2020 and I just love its laid back feel and Tom’s relaxed conducting style. Grab a cuppa, turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy some chilled out recorder jazz!

John Williams - The Cantina Band from Star Wars

Orlan Charles

My final choice today should put a spring in your step, although I must warn you may be humming the tune for days! This is one of those videos thrown up for me by YouTube and it immediately made me smile. Orlan Charles is a Brazilian recorder player and flautist who performs a huge variety of music, as well as arranging for many different types of ensemble. This arrangement of the Cantina Band music from Star Wars is one he recorded four years ago and it showcases his recorder playing, body percussion and some choreography too. As someone who spends a lot of time creating multitrack videos I can’t help feeling I need to raise my game after watching this!

So there you have six pieces to entertain and inspire you - some serious, some much less so! I hope you enjoyed them - drop a comment below to let me know which one’s your favourite. While you’re doing that, why not let me have any suggestions for future editions of Sounding Pipes. Perhaps you want more recorder orchestra music or repertoire from a particular period? I’m open to ideas and I’m all ears!