Eight Quartets on "The Bird Fancyer's Delight"

OMP295 Lance Eccles - 8 Quartets on "The Bird Fancyer's Delight"

This carefully constructed, attractive, and versatile set of quartets takes as its basis eight tunes from the Bird Fancyer's Delight, which are competently developed and expanded into eight numbers substantial enough to stand alone or in pairs in performance. Each is titled according to the type of bird the source tune was intended to instruct and are ordered in such a way that the set in its entirety could function harmonically as a single work, or selections could be taken from it to form a suite; musically there is just enough contrast between the numbers to allow it to be performed as such. Where contrast is lacking, this is largely because the nature of the source material: the tunes preferred for teaching birds to sing tend to be all of a certain type. In fact, these are dance tunes despite their bird-related titles, and as a result, quick tempi and major keys predominate.

The music is on the whole not too difficult for intermediate players, and played at the suggested speeds, there is plenty to challenge more advanced players. The attractiveness of the tunes and the enjoyable arrangements make this set a good choice for intermediate cosort works.

Fiona Smith, The Recorder Magazine UK Spring 2021