PROGRAMME NOTES

Recorder Music

Recorders and tape or two recorder players (1973) 

Recorder Music was written for David Munrow, who commissioned it. He gave the first BBC broadcast on 8 February 1973 and has recorded it. The piece arises from my admiration for his performances and from the experience of writing Translations for him, with other members of The Early Music Consort of London.

Recorder Music is for one player and a tape-recording, or for two players. The recorded part, which is made live beforehand without any electronic treatment, 
makes possible a dialogue between a fixed performance and a freer one during the concert. The writing draws on a number of historical techniques such as the Baroque flattement (fingered vibrato) and the simultaneous use of two recorders derived from medieval double pipes. Five sizes of the recorder family are involved and these are contrasted with the more primitive Kena, or Peruvian Notch Flute.

First the high Garkleinflötlein and Sopranino are played together 
in a march against a modal tune heard on tape. The central sections 
for treble recorder - are cadenzas ranging from soft mutterings, 
antiphonal exchanges, high notes and overblown chords to a long solo 
without tape. At the end of the piece the march returns in the taped 
part, played on tenor and bass recorders simultaneously, and the 
Notch Flute is heard live for the first time while the march fades into 
the distance. PD