| May Hill
Edition QUARTETS
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Not Too Hard Really
(DTrTB) MHE 20804 £6.00
Fast &
Light 
In 7/4
Funky
Chromatic
Silly
Fairly easy pieces in musical
idioms where the available music is often much more difficult. This is
enjoyable music for players and audiences alike.
A Crock Of Jazz-Rock
(DTrTB) MHE 20805 £9.50
Here's To
Freddie
Are We Lost Yet?
Evening Story
Just Testing
Fly-By-Night
The Hundredweight Swing
A set of pieces in the Jazz-Rock idiom, a fusion of the
improvisations of jazz with the strong rhythms (and often straight quavers) of
rock. The music is no more than moderately difficult, although accurate rhythms
and precise articulation are very important.
Out Of The Wood Of
Thoughts (narrator and DTrTB) MHE 10404a
£8.00
A quartet version of the piece described under
trios. With one more part, this quartet version is
slightly easier.
Miniature Suite
(John Hawkes) (TrTTB) MHE 40805 £8.00
Lento
Allegretto
Andantino
Allegro
Andante
Allegro
The Miniature Suite displays the usual rhythmic
vitality and at times pungent harmony of John Hawkes' writing. The six short
and varied pieces in this group have already been played quite widely, although
this is the first time that they have been published. They are not difficult,
although some of the rhythms may need some work.. For details of other
compositions by John Hawkes, visit his website at http://www.johnhawkes.co.uk
Prelude & Fugue
in C (DTrTB) MHE 20703
£3.50
Prelude
Fugue
A gentle prelude and
spiky fugue, peppered with dissonances. If you’ve always wanted to play
recorder in the style of Shostakovich, this is for you!
Redland Blues (DTrTB
optional CtB) MHE 60603
£3.00
A light and easy blues which leaves space for improvised
solos. Useful for ‘beginner’ improvisers, and also useful for groups
looking for something a bit different.
Spirituals You Might Not
Know (DTrTB) MHE 10903 £5.00
Great
Day
The Hammer Song
Hebrew
Children
Most people know Deep River and Down By The
Riverside (and very good they are too), but this set contains three less-known
but excellent spirituals, which may be new to you - Great Day, The Hammer Song
and Hebrew Children. All bursting with rhythmic vitality (there are no soulful
ballads in this set!). Not difficult to play. This set is also available as
MHE 10903a (£5.50) with an added
voice part, the range of which is middle C to the G above the stave.
More Spirituals You
Might Not Know (DTrTB) MHE 20107
£6.00
I Want To Be Ready
What Month Was Jesus Born In?
I've Been In The Storm So Long
Roll, Jordan Roll
A follow-on set to Spirituals You Might Not Know (MHE
10903), consisting of arrangements of four spirituals which are (mystifyingly)
rarely performed.
Seven Miniatures for solo
instrument and recorders (solo DTrTB) MHE 20207
£7.50
A Short Drive In The Rain
Reverie
Spiritual
Costa del Reggae
Custard Pie Fight
Lament
Dance with Big Sticks
These varied short pieces can be played successfully by
quite a number of solo instruments. The two main requirements are an ability to
play the range of C3 (that's the one below middle C) to Bb4, and to be loud
enough to be heard against a group of recorders - in other words fairly low and
fairly loud. Possibilities are hence a tenor saxophone, French horn, Eb horn,
and that eternal standby the synthesiser. Parts for these instruments are
included, but if you would like to use something else, and need a suitable
part, please contact me. The music is of moderate difficulty only.
Four Scenes from
Hansel & Gretel MHE 50303 (DTrTB)
£5.00
The Edge of the Forest
Moonlight
Through the Trees
The Gingerbread House
Pathways Through The
Forest
Each piece ‘features’ a different size of recorder. Yes! –
even the basses get the tune. Tuneful and easy. The only possible difficulty is
for the trebles, who have some nimble tonguing in Pathways Through the
Forest.
Recorder Quartet No 1
(Pastoral) (DTTGtB) MHE 10503
£7.00
I
II
III
Pieces with
‘pastoral’ in the title are very often slow, gentle and pretty. But
this three movement quartet paints some little pictures of a more bustling
countryside, including a working farm and a fast-flowing stream. So it’s
not slow, it’s not gentle, and you’ll have to decide for yourselves
whether it’s pretty! This quartet is moderately difficult. Also available
(MHE 10503a £7.00) for SnoTrTrB,
which seems rather squeaky, but I have heard good reports from groups who have
played it in this form!
Recorder Quartet No
2 (DTrTB) MHE 11205 £6.50
Presto
Passacaglia
Finale
Fast, rhythmic and jazzy - almost rocky - in the outer
movements with insistent ostinati. The middle movement is a Passacaglia which
is slower, but still quite a tempestuous affair. Not particularly difficult
notes, but will probably need quite some work to get into the idiom.
Flying (D/Tr/T T/GtB
GtB CtB) MHE 30404
£4.00
A very unusual item - originally conceived as music to accompany a shadow
theatre piece by Franzeska G Ewart. The quartet also works as a stand-alone
tone poem which moves through several contrasting moods and instrumentations.
This is a rather difficult piece, but quartets with the required instruments
will find it an interesting addition to a programme.
Concertino No 2 for
Horn and Recorders (Horn solo, DTrTB) MHE 20406
£8.00
Introduction & Allegro
Nocturnal
Blue Rondo
Knowing that I was going to be conducting a group which
included the horn player Shirley Brown, I wrote this concertino so that we
could explore the way that these very different instruments can work together.
The 'orchestral' parts are quite straightforward, while the horn part is no
more than moderately difficult. The solo part would work well on a tenor horn,
and probably slightly less well on a tenor saxophone; please contact me if you
would like a suitably transposed part.
Music That Counts
(DTrTB) MHE 10806 £8.50
Theme for
Bodies and Recorders
Cool Stomp
Folk Dance
Snap Barcarolle
Counter-Intelligence
Fingers & Feet Blues
One Step Beyond
Music That Counts puts the emphasis firmly on rhythm. The
players are called on to clap, snap fingers, stamp their feet and count aloud,
as well as play the recorder. In the easier pieces the non-recorder activities
are often separate from the recorder playing, but in the harder pieces they are
more closely integrated. The objective is to improve rhythmic confidence and
skill. The pieces are not dry exercises - the melodic content makes them
interesting and enjoyable as pieces of music.
Three French
Nursery Rhymes (DTrTB) £5.00
Mon Âne, Mon Âne (My
Donkey)
Au Claire De La Lune (In The Moonlight)
Mon Père M'a
Donné Un Mari (My Father Gave Me A Husband)
Cheerful, fun and easy
arrangements of nursery rhymes which are very well-known in France. Also
available is a version for voice + DTrTB (MHE
30205 £5.50). In that version the voice part has a large range
(from an F to the G over two octaves higher), but two people could share the
line with a little ingenuity. The words are in French, but a translation is
included.
Recorder Quartet No 4 (John
Hawkes) (DTrTB) MHE 41206 £8.00
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro Giocoso
Variants
Rhythmic, harmonically adventurous, but no more than
moderately difficult. John conducted this quartet at the 2006 Cheltenham
Recorder Festival, and a good performance was secured once all of the G
s were mastered! For details of other
compositions by John Hawkes, visit his website at
http://www.johnhawkes.co.uk
Three Easy Water Pieces (Ann Marshall) (DDTrT)
MHE 31206 £5.00
Calypso Cove
The Waterfall
Caught In The Rain
More tuneful music from Ann Marshall. They are interesting
pieces, but at the same time easy and happy-sounding. Recorder groups of even
limited technical ability will take to them immediately! This set is also
available for DTrTB (MHE
31206a).
Three More Easy Water Pieces (Ann
Marshall) (DTrTB) MHE 10307 £5.00
The Camargue
Lazing On The Riverbank
Kingston Harbour
In the same way as the first set (Three Easy Water
Pieces MHE 31206), this suite of short, tuneful and straightforward pieces is
designed to appeal to 'easy intermediate' players.
Eight Minimalist Studies (DTrTB)
MHE 10607 £10.50
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
These pieces are in the Minimalist style which was
developed in the 1970s. They are completely tonal, with static harmony and much
repetition of ideas. They are, however, rather easier, rather shorter, rather
less repetitive and rather more tuneful than 'normal' minimalist pieces, and so
I hope they will find favour with groups of recorder players!
Send Three-and-Fourpence
(SnoTrBCtB) MHE 20807
£ 3.00 (No Sound File - performance is partly improvised)
This
short (3 minute) piece consists of echoes of short musical phrases. It involves
some improvisation, and a lot of listening to one another. It may sound
unpromising, but it's fun to play and interesting for the audience. The first
performance was given in the course concert at the Recorder Summer School in
August 2007, by Andrew Meville, Fiona Sneyd, Berenice Styles and myself. The
title comes from the instruction 'send reinforcements, we're going to advance',
which was allegedly misheard as 'send three-and-fourpence, we're going to a
dance'.