Music recommendations

Sounding Pipes Edition 4

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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

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

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

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:

“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.

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

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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)

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.

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

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!

Composer focus - George Frideric Handel

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I imagine most recorder players are familiar with at least some of Handel’s sonatas - which is your favourite? They’re a staple of the recorder’s Baroque repertoire and, while we’re not averse to borrowing music from other places, it’s always a pleasure to return to music which was genuinely written for our instrument, if only because it fits the instrument like a glove.

This week’s blog explores the history of these sonatas, revealing a fascinating tale of underhand publishing practices. We’ll also take a closer look at the individual sonatas and some performances which I hope will inspire and delight you. If you’ve not yet played these delightful pieces maybe this will inspire you to explore further…

Handel’s neat manuscript in his fair copy of the F Major Sonata

Handel wrote his six recorder sonatas around 1712, the period when he moved permanently to London. Autograph manuscripts still exist for all six sonatas (although the C major Sonata manuscript is missing two pages), stored at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the British Museum. The manuscripts for the first four Sonatas (G minor, A minor, C major and F major respectively) are neat and clear. They’re written on Italian paper of the type Handel would probably have bought on his travels in Italy in the early years of the 18th century. The style of script is that used by Handel when writing up fair copies of his works, although not long after this he began to use a copyist to do this on his behalf.

In contrast, the manuscripts of the B flat major and D minor sonatas are much less tidy - evidently working copies from Handel’s compositional process. As you can see in this example from the D minor Sonata, there are definite drawbacks when you have to work in ink rather than pencil…

Corrections in the D Minor Sonata manuscript

The rocky road to publication

The story behind the early publications of Handel’s recorder sonatas is full of subterfuge and industrial espionage.

To the uninformed eye it would be easy to assume the first person to publish Handel’s sonatas was Jeanne Roger, in Amsterdam. But appearances can be misleading….

John Walsh’s fake cover for his first edition, supposedly published by Jeanne Roger.

Around 1730 English publisher, John Walsh (c.1665-1736) acquired a copy of Handel’s sonatas ‘without consent or approbation’ of the composer. He was keen to publish them, but the two men weren’t on good terms at the time. Walsh had a previous arrangement with Jeanne Roger to engrave some of Handel’s harpsichord music on her behalf which she then published with her own title page. This happened around 1719, just three years before Roger died.

Sometime between 1726 and 1732 Walsh went ahead and engraved his own edition of the recorder sonatas, even though he didn’t have Handel’s consent. To overcome this he used the same strategy, creating a title page emulating that of Jeanne Roger. The typesetting within the music itself is clearly that of Walsh’s own engravers, but the earlier arrangement with Roger must have given him the confidence to make this edition with a fake Roger title page. Of course, he would also have known by this stage that Jeanne Roger had died in 1722 so she couldn’t complain even if she wanted to!

Walsh’s second edition

In time relations between Handel and Walsh improved and the Englishman, and in 1732 he was able to publish a new and improved second edition. A lot of the errors Walsh’s engravers introduced to his illegal edition were corrected here, although some of the changes are dubious, contradicting Handel’s own manuscripts.

On the death of John Walsh senior in 1736 his son, also called John, took over the business. His relationship with the composer was less troublesome, and Handel probably realised his music was going to be published by Walsh whether he liked it or not. Editions created by John Walsh junior contain fewer errors, suggesting perhaps Handel was also involved with their creation. In October 1739 he was finally appointed as Handel’s sole publisher for the next fourteen years.

Walsh’s position as Handel’s official publisher was no doubt a positive arrangement for both men, and Handel later dedicated his Op.4 organ concerti to Walsh. The business thrived under his auspices, often selling the work of other publishers and absorbing smaller publishers upon their liquidation. When he died in 1766 he left £40,000 (about £5.5M in today’s money) and the publishing business continued with William Randall at the helm.

I’ve collected the various manuscripts and early editions together so if you’re interested in exploring them further you’ll find them in the Resources section at the end of this blog.

Why no mention of recorder on the title page?

Walsh’s new ‘official’ edition didn’t just contain the recorder sonatas we know today, but included no fewer than twelve ‘Solos for German Flute [what we think of today as flute], a Hoboy [oboe], or Violin, with a Thorough Bass for the harpsichord or bass violin.’ Walsh, was a canny businessman and wanted to sell as many copies as possible, so it made sense to advertise the music as being suitable for several instruments.

The recorder’s popularity in England was waning by this time, so he evidently didn’t feel it worth mentioning the recorder (or flauto as it would have been known in England) on the title page. However, the sonatas intended for our instrument are clearly marked ‘flauto’, even if Walsh wanted his buyers to consider playing them on other instruments too.

By 1734 Walsh was advertising these sonatas as Handel’s Opus 1, although this classification was never used by Handel and never appeared on the title page of any publication. Between 1978 and 1986 Bernd Baselt created a comprehensive catalogue of Handel’s music, listing every known piece in musical categories with HWV numbers. The recorder sonatas’ numbers range from 360 to 377, mixed in among Handel’s solo sonatas for other instruments.

Recorder sonatas as exercises for a royal princess

There’s a theory that Handel may have used some of his recorder sonatas as exercises in basso continuo playing.

Between December 1725 and April 1726 Handel made fair copies of some exercises in figured bass and fugal composition - probably for teaching purposes. It’s thought perhaps they were made for Princess Anne, King George II’s daughter, a pupil of Handel’s who’s known to have been a fine harpsichordist and skilled continuo player. These exercises were made on the same paper as the fair copies of his recorder sonatas, as well as having similarities in calligraphy so maybe he wrote them out at the same time?

At this time the keyboard player would have created their part using the bassline, adding chords as indicated by the figures beneath the music. These numbers are a shorthand to tell the harpsichordist which chords to play above the bassline but it wasn’t uncommon for them to be quite infrequent and imprecise. The bass lines for the four sonatas (those in G minor, A minor, C major and F major) in Handel’s fair copies are unusually well figured (as well as being neatly written) and it’s been suggested they were perhaps used as additional teaching tool for use with the Princess, and maybe other pupils too.

The first page of the G minor sonata, showing the copious amounts of figured bass. Click on this or any of the images to see them enlarged.

Why shouldn’t you use a good tune more than once?

We’re familiar with the concept of recycling to help the planet these days, but Handel was doing this with his music two and half centuries ago. Not content with using a good tune just once, sometimes he’d give a second or even third life to melodic lines! Every one of the recorder sonatas is reused in some way or another. Sometimes Handel just recycles a single line. For instance the bassline of the opening movement of the A minor Sonata is a reuse of the bass from Pur ritorno a rimirarvi, an aria from his 1709 opera Agrippina.

In contrast, the three complete movements of the B flat major Sonata do double time. The opening Allegro is used in 1726 in the Overture to Scipione. Meanwhile, the second movement became the slow movement of an organ concerto in 1735. Finally, the third movement also serves as the third movement of a Violin Concerto in A major in 1712 - around the same time we believe he wrote the recorder sonatas.

Take a listen to this recording of the Overture to Scipione and you’ll hear not just the B flat Sonata, but the second movement of the C major one too!

Let’s now take a look at the six sonatas in turn and I’ll suggest some recordings you might find inspiring and entertaining too.

Sonata in G minor, HWV360

In the first of his recorder sonatas Handel follows the typical Baroque pattern of four movements, alternating slow and fast tempi. The second movement is only marked Andante, but the music is energised from bar five, when the bass sets off in a sequence of semiquaver passages. Handel continues to give the bassline a good workout in the fourth movement, with a moto-perpetuo of running quavers while the recorder parts jogs along in a more relaxed fashion above.

These Sonatas can be accompanied in a variety of ways. The most familiar combination is to have a cello or viola da gamba playing the bassline, with harpsichord completing the harmonies indicated in the figured bass. However, there’s no reason why you can’t use different combinations, as we’ll see in some of the other recordings I’ve chosen. In Pamela Thorby’s performance she’s chosen a simple organ accompaniment, provided by Richard Egarr. I love this low key approach in this particular sonata and it complements the melancholic mood beautifully.

Pamela Thorby (recorder) and Richard Egarr (harpsichord and organ) - Handel Recorder Sonatas Linn Recorders CKD223

Sonata in A minor, HWV362

The bassline always played a crucial role in the Baroque era, setting the music’s rhythmic and harmonic shape. This is certainly true of the A minor Sonata but it also takes an equal melodic role with the recorder. This is especially true in the opening Larghetto, where it creates an athletic yet lulling counterpart to the recorder.

The rhythm in both parts is a curious mix of dotted rhythms (both dotted crotchets and dotted quavers) and triplets. If played exactly as notated the result is very angular and lacks flow, so in practice it’s usually evened out to create a lilting meter which feels more like a 9/8 time signature. The process of playing a different rhythm to that notated can be discombobulating to newcomers. I recall a class of mine at summer school many years ago tying themselves in knots about the exact mathematical length of each note! Handel probably notated the music this way for simplicity, knowing players of the day would understand he meant them to rationalise the rhythms to create a flowing line. Our twenty first century eyes and brains are used to playing precisely what the composer wrote and it can feel strange to veer away from this.

Take a careful listen to Dan Laurin’s beautiful performance and you’ll hear how he makes the dotted quaver rhythms relaxed and triplety, while the dotted crotchets are slightly over-dotted. The result is that everything seamlessly flows along with the triplets.

Dan Laurin (recorder), Hidemi Suzuki (cello), Masaaki Suzuki (harpsichord/organ) - Handel The Recorder Sonatas BIS Records BISCD955

The remainder of the Sonata is just as wonderful. The second movement bounces along for the recorder, while the bassline has a real workout with never ending runs of broken chords. I recall accompanying a pupil for this movement at school many years ago with a piano whose key action was rather heavy and those semiquavers nearly crippled me! Played on a harpsichord though it’s great fun and gives an amazing sense of drive to the music.

Sonata in C major, HWV365

In his third sonata Handel diverges from the familiar three or four movement format, throwing in a fifth for good measure. The opening Larghetto is a glorious melody, accompanied by a walking bass - the perfect opportunity to try out some melodic ornamentation through the musical sequences. Perhaps the most creative take I’ve ever heard on this piece was during a concert at the Northern Recorder Course. Daniel Koschitzki finished his recital with what we thought was a performance of this Larghetto as an encore. Accompanied on the piano, the harmonies gradually became more exotic, and before our ears the music morphed effortlessly into a jazz rendition of Somewhere over the rainbow!

In this recording Stefan Temmingh sticks with Handel’s original harmonies, but creates a wonderfully dramatic performance through his creative ornamentation and by responding flexibility to the dramatic moments in the harmonies.

Stefan Temmingh (recorder) & Wiebke Weidanz (harpsichord) - Handel The Recorder Sonatas Accent ACC24353

The movement that follows is a tremendously exciting conversation between the recorder and bass lines. This Allegro really needs a one in a bar feel to make it swing along and it’s important to look out for the many hemiolas along the way. The fourth movement purports to be a Gavotte, although I suspect most Baroque dancers might find it a little busier than other Gavottes of the period. Maybe this is Handel’s nod to the active theatre scene in 18th century London, as it wasn’t unusual for operatic overtures to include dance movements. The Sonata ends with a bonus fifth movement - another whirling piece in 3/8 which arguably makes more demands of the continuo team than the recorder player!

If you’d like an alternative view of the recorder sonatas, I found this fascinating curiosity while exploring. Tatty Theo has purloined the sonatas (as indeed recorder players are so often used to doing with music for other instruments!) for the cello and, despite the lower pitch I think they translate very well.

The Brook Street Band - Handel Sonatas for Cello Avie AV2118

Sonata in F major, HWV369

The F major Sonata is often the place recorder players begin their journey with Handel. The music may be less technically demanding but there are some beautiful melodic lines and lots of opportunities to explore the possibilities in terms of ornamentation. The opening movement in particular is a wonderful blank canvas for you to experiment with ornamentation - not just cadential trills, but adding melodic shapes too.

Olwen Foulkes’ recording of this Sonata comes from a disc, Directed by Handel, devoted to the music performed in the London theatres where Handel worked. I’ve chosen the joyful Gigue which is yet another piece where Handel chose to recycle a good tune. The opening bars of this movement also appear in a trio sonata for two recorders which you may already have explored when I shared it as a ‘trio minus one’ earlier this year. You can find the music and videos for the Trio Sonata here if you want to try it out for yourself.

Olwen Foulkes (recoder), Nathaniel Mander (harpsichord), Carina Drury (cello), Tabea Debus (bass recorder) & Toby Carr (theorbo) - Directed by Handel Barn Cottage Records

Handel’s theatre work brings us to yet another reuse of the F major sonata - this time as an organ concerto. Handel used several organ concertos as interval music for theatre performances of his oratorios in 1735, and in the Op.4 No.5 Concerto he simply reuses this Sonata wholesale, just adding a short a introduction to each movement.

The Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr (organ & direction) - Handel Organ Concertos Op.4 - Harmonia Mundi HMU807446

Sonata in B flat major, HWV377

Handel’s B flat major Sonata is often known as a ‘Fitzwilliam Sonata’ (along with the D minor) on account of Thurstan Dart’s discovery of the manuscript at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in 1948. This is the smallest of Handel’s sonatas, with just three movements, and is one of the works where we get to see his compositional process at work. In the snippet below, taken from the manuscript of the third movement, you can see Handel initially wrote a string of rising arpeggios. But later he returned to the work, crossing out the middle note of each group to simplify it to a crotchet-quaver pattern. I performed this very Sonata last month and I chose to add some arpeggios at this very point as ornamentation. it was only when I began researching this blog post that I realised that I’d unknowingly reinstated Handel’s originally musical idea as my arpeggios were identical to those shown below - what a spooky coincidence!

One of the challenges when performing this particular sonata is getting a good balance between recorder and continuo, especially in the two Allegros. The recorder part is quite low in places, often at moments when the bassline is very active. David Antich overcomes this problem by using lute, cello and organ to play the continuo line. This creates a positively ethereal sound world and the gentler articulation of the organ reveals details which can be lost under the clatter of a harpsichord.

David Antich, Mediterrània Consort - Complete Recorder Sonatas IBS Classical IBS32022

Sonata in D minor, HWV367a

The final recorder sonata is also the longest - weighing in at an impressive seven movements! Two movements really stand out for me, the first being a Vivace in 3/2 time. Handel has bags of fun here, playing with syncopated rhythms in both the recorder and continuo. There are hemiolas galore and a number of phrases where you could also choose to explore the boundaries between the notated 3/2 time signature and bars which look more like 6/4.

Here I feel David Antich perfectly captures the sense of excitement and drive Handel wove into this wonderful music.

In both of Walsh’s editions of Handel’s Sonatas, this particular work appears in B minor for the flute, although the manuscript held at the Fitzwilliam Museum clearly shows Handel also intended it to be played in D minor on the recorder. Erik Bosgraaf takes a hybrid approach on his disc of Handel’s Sonatas by performing the B minor version on a voice flute - a tenor recorder in D. The effect is ravishingly beautiful, with Erik’s golden tone and effortless musicality. Perhaps the most astonishing movement though is the third - a Furioso which lives up to its name with a truly virtuoso performance!

Erik Bosgraaf (recorder), Ensemble Cordavento - Baroque Edition Brilliant Classics 96440

Resources:

When it comes to modern editions of Handel’s Sonatas there are many available, but two stand out for me.

Handel - The Complete Sonatas (Faber)

You really can’t go wrong with the 1979 volume of all six, edited by David Lasocki and Walter Bergmann. The volume contains reams of background information about the music, as well as clearly showing the differences between the various manuscripts and early published editions, allowing you, the performer, to make informed musical decisions.

Handel - Four Sonatas Op.1

A second edition worth looking at is Edgar Hunt’s volume containing the Sonatas in G minor, A minor, C major and F major. Edgar’s first edition of these works was published in 1940, when interest in early music was just beginning to grow. Forty years later he updated the edition, removing most of the editorial suggestions included in 1940 and offering a straightforward, un-distracting continuo realisation by harpsichordist Maria Boxall. The edition also comes with a printed copy of the Walsh edition so you can compare the two.

One curiosity of this edition is Edgar’s approach to the A minor Sonata, where he attempts to clarify the notational issues I talked about earlier. Here he converts the original 3/4 time signature to 9/8, evening out the dotted rhythms and triplets as most performers do in any case. This approach will probably infuriate Baroque notational purists, but some may find this less confusing, and you can always refer back to the facsimile of the Walsh edition to compare with Handel’s original rhythms.

Returning to 18th century sources

If the thought of playing from the music as Handel would have known it appeals to you, there are several options. With the exception of the C major Sonata (which is missing a couple of pages) it’s possible to work from Handel’s own manuscripts as all are available online. I’ve collected all six together into one PDF file which you can download by clicking on the button below.

If Handel’s handwriting is a little too scruffy for you to read, you could try the two 18th century editions I talked about earlier. For someone who’s used to reading 21st century computer typeset music these facsimiles may feel a little alien, but once you tune your eye into the noation they’re remarkably easy to interpret. Both these and Handel’s manuscripts also give you the ability to see what the bassline is doing while you’re playing as both parts appear together on the page. This is immensely helpful as you can instantly see how the two lines interact with each other, rather than playing your line in isolation.

Both 18th century editions can be downloaded via the buttons below. Remember, they also contain sonatas which are suitable for flute, oboe or violin, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try these too. To do this you may need to use the tenor recorder instead of the treble and perhaps adjust occasional high notes an octave lower to make them fit comfortably.

Are you lacking a continuo team?

If you want to play these sonatas but don’t have a tame harpsichordist you have several options. As we’ve seen, the bass lines are very much equal partners to the recorder line, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get togther with a bass recorder playing friend and try them as duets. There will be places where the bass line travels beyond the bottom note of a bass recorder, but then that problem is easily conquered by transposing the occasional note or phrase an octave higher.

Another option is to use a backing track to play along with, just as you might with my consort music downloads. I’ve found two options for this, although there may be others out there,. One of these is a free resource, while the other costs only a modest amount.

Continuo Lines - This is a project set up by recorder player Tabea Debus and harpsichordist Benedict Williams to create backing tracks for many pieces of recorder music. The library is still growing but the F major Handel Sonata is already available. Each movement is available at a choice of three different tempi and four different pitches (A392, 415, 440 and 466) which gives lots of flexibility for different ability levels and types of instrument. The site also includes pieces by Barsanti, Corelli, Telemann and others, with more to come in the future. The downloads are free, but if you find them useful there is opportunity to make a contribution to help fund future developments. You can find Continuo Lines by clicking here.

Cat on the Keys - If you’re looking for backings tracks, editions of early music or practical courses on ornamentation and more this is a great resource. Among the backing tracks I found all six of Handel’s Recorder Sonatas, priced at a modest £4 per sonata. As with Continuo Lines, each movement is available with backing tracks at a variety of speeds and pitches and they are a great way to experience playing these works with harpsichord continuo. I bought and tried the D minor Sonata but there are dozens of recorder sonatas by other composers too, including Telemann, Mancini, Bach and many more. Clicking this link will take you direct to the Handel Sonatas, but I recommend exploring the site further as it’s a real treasure trove!

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If you’re already a fan of Handel’s Recorder Sonatas I hope today’s blog has inspired you to explore them further, but if you’re new to them I hope this may have opened your eyes to their possibilities. I’d love to know which Sonata is your favourite. Mine changes from day to day, but at this moment I think it’s the beautiful A minor sonata, with its meandering conversation between recorder and bass in the opening movement. Why not drop a comment below with your favourite sonata and if there are recordings you enjoy that I haven’t mentioned why not tell us about them too?

Many shades of Browning

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What comes to mind if I mention the words ‘the leaves be green’ to you? Do you think of nature? Or maybe a melody pops into your head?

Perhaps the most famous piece of music with this name is by William Byrd - a work which can bring joy or strike terror into the heart of musicians. Byrd’s set of 20 variations on this simple 4 phrase melody is chock full of creative ideas, along with a myriad of syncopated cross rhythms. But did you know that many other composers have written their own interpretation of this concept? Today’s blog explores a selection of these - not a comprehensive catalogue, but more a romp through some of my favourites!

What is ‘The Leaves Be Green’?

During the Renaissance the tune, Browning, was a popular melody. Based on a poem with the following words, it celebrates the coming of autumn and has inspired many composers to write their own take on it.

The leaves be green,

The nuts be brown,

They hang so high

They will not come down.


This is the popular melody associated with these lyrics:

Some composers chose to name their pieces Browning, while others plumped for The Leaves Be Green in recognition of the poem’s words.

Why so many versions?

It wasn’t unusual during the Renaissance for composers to write pieces based on popular tunes of the day. For instance, Jacob Van Eyck wrote a collection of 150 solo recorder pieces, Der Fluyten Lusthof, most of which are sets of variations on folk songs, dance tunes, psalms and popular songs.

Of course, this concept wasn’t confined to the Renaissance - think of it like pop bands today recording cover versions of familiar songs - it’s their way to benefit from a song’s popularity while making their own mark. During my research I’ve found countless more reinterpretations of The Leaves Be Green from beyond the Renaissance and you’ll meet some of them here. No doubt some will already be familiar to you, but I hope others will open up new musical vistas.

William Byrd - The Leaves Be Green

SAATB recorders, available in many different editions.

To my mind this is the granddaddy of the genre and offers endless challenges to anyone who tackles it. The Browning theme appears no fewer than twenty times, working through a variety of keys along the way. Modern editions generally have a 6/4 time signature but don’t let that fool you into expecting a predictable, regular rhythm! Byrd plays endlessly with the meter, bringing in rhythms which feel more like 3/2 and even 12/8, plus a stretch with bubbling strings of triplets for good measure. Through the endless cross rhythms the Browning theme acts as musical glue, holding the voices together while they talk across each other and you’ll notice a new interaction or detail each time you play or listen to this.

To complement the theme of this week’s blog post I’ve recorded my own playalong consort video of Byrd’s The Leaves Be Green. I can’t claim to achieve the same levels of perfection as the Flanders Recorder Quartet, but it gives you the opportunity to have a go yourself. Of course it also means you can restart or rewind as many times as you wish as you get to grips with the complex rhythms! I’ve also created my own edition of the piece, which irons out one or two of the notational wrinkles which can make some other editions tricky to read.

Heather Wastie - Browning for Four

SATB recorders, published by Hawthorns Music RA125. To order a copy contact Hawthorns Music here.

Alongside the various Renaissance versions of The Leaves be Green I’ve discovered a number of contemporary reinterpretations, including this one by Heather’s Wastie. Heather’s website describes her as a singer, songwriter, poet, actor, humourist, entertainer and much more besides. She composed this particular piece during one of her courses at Pendrell Hall in Wolverhampton, although it remained unfinished for some time after that. The impetus to complete the work ultimately came from the 40th wedding anniversary of Ken and Kath Smith, two of her course members. Although it’s a 20th century interpretation of the theme, there are still some echoes of the Medieval and Renaissance period, and you can clearly hear Kath and Ken dancing with their guests later in the piece.

If you’ve not played any contemporary Brownings before and fancy dipping you toe in the water this is a really good place to start. it lies easily beneath the fingers and has some beautiful melodic lines.

Henry Stoning - Browning My Dear

SAATB recorders - music and playalong video available via the button:

Henry Stoning is one of those composers who has today been all but forgotten. However, John Hawkins, the 18th century writer on music, described him as well known in his day and he was active during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. We don’t even know his dates of birth or death - the resources I’ve found simply describe him as having flourished around 1600!

Like the Wastie version of Browning, this is a great place to start exploring. Stoning’s version is concise and pretty straightforward to play, while allowing everyone a slice of the action too. I shared my playalong consort version of this as a subscriber video in 2021 but I’ve discovered a couple of delightful commercial recordings too.

John Baldwin - A Browninge of Three Voices

AAB recorders - score and parts available to download from Serpent Publications.

Baldwin’s working life was spent as a singer, first as a tenor lay clerk at St George's Chapel, Windsor (from 1575) and later as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he became a paid member of staff from 1598. Today he is perhaps best known as the copyist of My Ladye Nevells Booke, a collection of 42 keyboard pieces by William Byrd. As a composer he wrote both vocal and instrumental music, including this Browning for three voices.

Baldwin’s version of Browning is a gem - full of rhythmic interest, with some pretty exotic key changes for music of this period. The only edition I’ve discovered of the music is unbarred and the treble parts need to be played an octave higher than written. Neither of these are insurmountable problems, but I am mulling over the idea of creating a modern edition at playing pitch and with barlines - watch this space! in the meantime, you can enjoy these two recordings!

Klaus Miehling - Browning Suite Op.148

AATB recorders, published by Edition Walhall, FEM132.

This is another contemporary take on the Browning theme discovered while I was researching this blog post. A German harpsichordist, composer and musicologist born in 1963, Miehling was a fresh name to me. He’s certainly a prolific composer (with over 1200 works to his name) and his output includes music for a vast array of instrumental and choral groups. This Browning Suite is one of a number of works which include the recorder and definitely harks back to an earlier time.

Described as a motet for recorder quartet, it is reminiscent of a Baroque orchestral suite, with a French overture followed by five dance movements and a finale. Bach would have recognised this format well, with the dances including a Courante, Sarabande and Bourrée. The musical style will be be familiar to anyone who enjoy Baroque music, albeit with the occasional modern harmonic twist!

A short extract from Klaus Miehling’s Browning Suite

Elway Bevin - Browning

ATB recorders - music and playalong video can be found via the button:

Elway Bevin’s version of Browning is one of my all time favourites. He makes amazing use of minimal resources, creating wonderful melodic and rhythmic interactions between the parts. The excitement gradually builds, climaxing in a flurry of quavers towards the end of the piece. Perhaps the most cunning section though begins at bar 57 where the Browning theme appears in the tenor part in a clear 3/2 rhythm. Either side, the treble and bass lines bounce along in 6/4 rhythms, but instead of working in tandem, Bevin places the treble and bass rhythm patterns a beat adrift from each other!

I recorded this version as one of my playalong consort videos last summer and it was such fun to try and capture the feeling of competition between the musical lines.

Steve Marshall - The Leaves be Blue

SATTBB recorders, published by May Hill Edition, MHE 20706

Most composers stick to the original lilting meter for their take on Browning, but there’s no rule to say this has to be the way. Steve Marshall’s musical background is in jazz, so it’s no surprise he should follow this route when he used the Browning theme. I’ve long been a fan of The Leaves be Blue, although recorder players aren’t always completely at ease with its Latin rhythms. I asked Steve what inspired him to write this piece and this is what he told me:

“In, I believe, 2005 the much-missed Andrew Melville took a well-known Pavan by John Dowland and transformed it - believe it or not - into a Tango. I played in the first performance of that Lachrimae Tango and, the very next day, I played in a performance of The Leaves be Green by Elway Bevin. The urge to transform that marvellous piece in some unlikely way was irresistible, and so I changed it into a rumba-inspired piece in 4/4. This was not a lucrative commission, but one of many rather quirky pieces I have written over the years, in order to exercise my compositional chops or (more likely) as a bit of fun!”

To my surprise, there don’t seem to be any recordings of The Leaves be Blue, so I figured I’d make my own!

William Inglott - The Leaves Bee Greene

Five voices, score available to download here. A recorder arrangement by Paul Clark is also available, Clark Collection CC128.

The first Elizabethan age was a golden era for music and there are so many composers from that period who are almost unknown today. William Inglott is one such name, although history suggests he wasn’t so obscure in his lifetime. He worked at both Hereford and Norwich Cathedrals as organist, replacing Thomas Morley at the latter. One of the pillars at Norwich Cathedral is decorated with the following memorial for Inglott, restored at the expense of William Croft (Master of the King’s Music) in the 18th century.

Here Willyam Inglott Organist doth rest,
Whose arte in musique this cathedrall blest,
For descant most, for voluntary all
He past: on organ, songe and virginall:
He left this life at age of sixtie seaven;
And now 'mongst angells all sings saint in heaven;
His fame flies farr, his name shal never die;
See art and age here crowne his memory

Today only a handful of Inglott’s pieces remain, including this and one other from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. This was a collection of nearly 300 keyboard pieces, including works by William Byrd, Giles Farnaby and Thomas Morley - you may be interested to see the original keyboard version of the Leaves Bee Greene here.

Once again, I’ve found a couple of different recordings for you to enjoy - one played on the organ (with added percussion!) and the second on harpsichord.

Clement Woodcock - Browning My Dear

Five voices, SATTB - Score and parts available to download. Also published by London Pro Musica, EML112

To complete my selection of Brownings from the Renaissance, we have another relatively unknown composer - Clement Woodcock. Like Inglott, Woodcock spent much of his life as a church musician, working as a lay clerk at Both King’s College, Cambridge and Canterbury Cathedral. He also spent a good deal of time in my home town, Chichester, working as Cathedral organist and master of the Choristers. I taught the recorder at Chichester’s Cathedral school for nearly two decades, so it’s rather pleasing too think that we both spent countless hours working and making music in the same Cathedral, albeit four centuries apart!

Woodcock’s version of Browning is short and sweet and fits beautifully on recorders, although you’ll need to read the second part up an octave to play it on the treble recorder.

Sue Handscombe - The Leaves be Turning, the Nuts be Brown

SATB recorders, published by Peacock Press, P544

To bring us full circle, my final version of Browning came as a result of an experience of playing Byrd’s The Leaves Be Green. Sue told me the impetus to write this came from an experience preparing the Byrd for a golden wedding celebration. Things didn’t go to plan in rehearsals, with Byrd’s complex rhythms often tripping the musicians up. Instead Sue decided to write her own jazzy interpretation of the Browning theme and this is the result. As for the golden wedding celebrations - all was well in the end and the group made it through the performance without getting tangled up!

Sue’s the Leaves be Turning, The Nuts be Brown, has its own rhythmic intricacies, altogether different from Byrd’s, but I can guarantee you’ll have great fun playing it!

Which Browning is your favourite?

There we have ten different interpretations of this iconic melody, and there are more I could have included besides. Which is your favourite? Or maybe you have a penchant for one composed by someone else? Do share your thoughts in the comments below - it’ll be fascinating to see if you come up with versions I haven’t yet come across!