Seven Recorders

7 SSAATTB

7 SAATTBGb

7

7

7 SoSATTBGb (orch)

7 AAATTBGb

7 SSATBBB

7 SATTBGbCb. Allegro  - Andante  - Vivo. Most music in two choirs is quite serious, at least moderately difficult, and composed some hundreds of years ago. Ann hopes that her suite will fill a gap, in that it is cheerful, it is quite straightforward to play, and it was written in 2014! IShe wrote the suite for the Orchestra on the Hill, on the occasion of their fifth birthday. Total playing time is about six minutes.

7 SAATTBGbCb. Ann says: 'These trinkets are like three different frames of mind. The first is quite happy-go-lucky and has a Caribbean feel, the second is calm and reflective, and the third is energetic in a country dance sort of way. Something else I was trying to do in each piece in this eight-minute suite was to use a lot of imitation, so you will hear little thoughts bouncing backwards and forwards throughout the band. And not least in the first trinket, which features an eight-part canon.'

1 S + SATBGbCb. Ann Marshall wrote this concertino for Margaret Shearing. Margaret lives some miles north of Rochdale - an area in which Ann lived thirty years ago. It’s an interesting area, with a great deal of folk tradition and a rich industrial heritage, and with the moorlands always just on the doorstep. The moors can be bleak, but have a real grandeur about them. The movements of this concertino reflect, very indirectly, memories of this corner of England – memories of working mills, moorland walks and folk dancing respectively. The solo part is quite difficult, but the orchestral parts of this ten minute piece are quite straightforward, and a wide variety of ensembles will be able to play them.

SnoSATBGbCb. Ann says: 'My first recorder septet is in four movements. All movements start with musical material that is the same, apart from key and tempo, but then each movement develops along very different lines. The septet, which is of no more than moderate difficulty, works equally well played one-to-a-part, or by a several-to-a-part recorder orchestra. Total playing time is about eight minutes.'

7 Sno.SATBGbCb. Ann says: 'I was encouraged to write a second recorder septet by the success of the first. I think that reasons for its success included that there are still very few recorder septets in existence, and even fewer of only moderate difficulty. This piece is in five, very contrasting movements. It uses the same instrumentation as the first septet – sopranino down to contrabass – and it is equally suited to one-to-a-part playing or several-to-a-part orchestral playing. Total playing time is about nine minutes.'