Recorder and Piano -
Intermediate
SKU:
FP.FBM04
Composed by
Martin Bussey. Sheet
Music and Books. This
fresh and appealing work
lives up to its name.
Particularly diverting is
the finale, a hornpipe
subtitled The Knotted
Sailor, in which the
nifty performers have to
negotiate frequent and
teasing changes of rhythm
at speed. Classical.
Collection. Forsyths
Publications #FBM04.
Published by Forsyths
Publications (FP.FBM04).
ISBN
9790570504077.
The
opening movement is a
free fantasia,
contrasting with the
middle movement, a
scherzetto, in homage to,
and based on the letters
of the name of, the
composer Douglas Steele,
an assistant to Sir
Thomas Beecham and a
founding father of
Chethams School, and
which quotes from
Steele’s beautiful
carol The Snow
Falls.
Divertimento
was first performed by
John Turner and Janet
Simpson at a concert in
aid of the Peter
Cunningham Memorial Fund
at Mellor Church on 17th
January 2005. It uses
both treble and descant
instruments. The second
movement was originally
composed for a concert in
Manchester Cathedral in
memory of Douglas Steele,
one of the founding
fathers of Chetham's
School, and quotes (by
kind permission of
Forsyth Brothers Ltd.),
from his well-known carol
The Snow Falls. It has
been separately recorded
by John Turner and
Stephen Hough on Autumn
Sequence – the
music of Douglas Steele
and his Circle (Campion
Cameo 2040/41).
Martin
Bussey was born in London
in 1958. He was a Choral
Scholar at King’s
College, Cambridge,
during which time he
studied composition with
Robin Holloway. Following
postgraduate singing
study at the RNCM he
settled in Manchester and
held a number of posts,
including Head of
Academic Music and
Director of Choirs at
Chetham’s School
of Music until 2013. He
continues as Musical
Director of the Chester
Bach Singers, a Vocal
Tutor at Manchester
University, Chairman of
the Finzi Friends and a
Director of the Ludlow
Song Weekend.
Compositions include the
highly successful
monodrama about Mary I,
Mary’s Hand,
premiered in 2018; a
significant collection of
solo songs which includes
settings of Housman,
Hardy, and Walt Whitman,
many recorded on the disc
Through a glass; and much
choral music, recorded by
Sonoro under Neil Ferris
in 2019.
