Tango Armadillo

OMP060 Lance Eccles, The Planets' Feet

OMP093 Lance Eccles, The Planets' Feet, part 2

OMP121 Lance Eccles, Tango Armadillo

OMP131 Lance Eccles, Vampires

Lance Eccles is an Australian recorder player, composer and arranger. By occupation, he is a professor of Chinese.

These four publications by Eccles share a lightness of spirit and straightforward formal and technical nature. No extended techniques or colours are used.

The Planets' Feet is a suite in five movements, published in two sets. Each movement has an amusing title based on the poetic conception of footwear for the planets. The first set contains the first three movements: "The Boots of Mars", "Venus' Silk Stockings", "Mercury's Joggers". The second set contains "Neptune's Ice Skates" and "Jupiter's Skateboard". As the titles imply, each movement has a contrasting musical character. They are extremely appealing character pieces of medium difficulty. It is a clever and useful suite that would add a witty dimension to a recital.

Tango Armadillo is a concert tango that roves through a variety of key centres. It is short, pleasant, and would be an attractive divertissement between longer pieces on a program. It is of lower moderate difficulty.

Vampires is a characterful suite in a three-movement fast-slow-fast structure: "Vampires by Moonlight", "Vampire Grotto", and "Vampires at the Gates of Paradise". This is perfect for a Halloween concert, and is of moderate difficulty.

None of these Eccles works have any dynamic or expression markings, and, although the music is straightforward, dynamic markings would definitely be a help in interpretation. The editions are otherwise well-presented, with no page turns required within movements.

Carson Cooman, American Recorder, September 2005