Flexible Woodwind Ensembl-This suite of folk songs is scored for woodwind quartet and a single unpitched drum. Although the nominal scoring is for flute two clarinets and bassoon the piece has considerable inbuilt flexibility of scoring. The options for instruments on each part are as follows: Part 1: Flute oboe or soprano saxophone Part 2: Bb Clarinet or alto saxophone Part 3: Bb clarinet alto saxophone or tenor saxophone Part 4: Bassoon bass clarinet or baritone saxophoneThe piece may be played by any combination of these instruments. Where necessary some passages have been transposed down an octave in the soprano alto and tenor saxophone parts.Where this occurs the lower pitch is also included in the score. There are also a few notes in the bass clarinet part of the March which have been taken up the octave through necessity; similarly this is indicated in the score.The drum should be unsnared and of medium low pitch. A bodhran tenor drum low tom-tom or floor tom are suggested although in the end it is up to the performer!The folk songs used in the piece are not particularly well known these days. 'Gan to the Kye' is an example of the rich culture of traditional music from Northumbria. The title means 'Go to the cows' and is a love song in which the herdsman asks his lover (in a gesture possibly lacking somewhat in romance) to accompany him whilst he tends his herd of cattle.The second movement is a setting of 'Rosemary Lane' a beautiful Somerset song. It tells of a serving girl ill-used by a sailor; as so often in traditional music the beauty of the tune is quite at odds with the unpleasant circumstances related.'Gently Johnny' is a good-humoured song in which the enthusiastic suitor is teased by the object of his affections: he is asked to cool his ardour whilst at the same time being left in no doubt that his attentions may be as bold as he wishes! The middle section uses another song this time from Middlesex called 'Jack Williams'.

For the project The Music of Kurt Weill, Peter Kleine Schaars rewrote a number of works by the German composer Kurt Weill (1900?1950) for the ?Dreigroschen-Orchester? (an occasional ensemble with the line-up that Weill had prescribed for his Kleine Dreigroschenmusik). Kleine Schaars became inspired by the three periods that characterize the life of Weill: he successively lived in Berlin, Paris and New York. Three Aspects of Kurt Weill (with the subtitle Drei Kurzweilige Impressionen) has one theme that comes forward in three totally different atmospheres, corresponding with the three mentioned periods. Movement one is a ?Berlin-tinted? protest march and parodies the fascist use of music. Movement two is a French musette (valse de Paris). Finally, the theme is featured in big band style in movement three: here, your ensemble transforms into a swinging Broadway band.