PROGRAMME NOTES

Pastorale, Blues and Homage

Arranged for recorder and piano

For John Turner

1. A James Joyce Pastorale (1955)

2. A Robert Burns Blues (1967)

3. Homage to Poulenc (1963)

The Pastorale comes from a song, a student work, setting the first poem of James Joyce’s early cycle Chamber Music – ‘Strings in the earth and air’; the second piece is another song to Burns’ ‘My love is like a red, red rose’, which was frequently performed by Meriel and Peter Dickinson in their recitals [recorded on Albany TROY 369]; Homage to Poulenc started as a piano duet, No. 1 of Five Forgeries [recorded by the composer and John Flinders on Naxos 8.572287]. It is dedicated to Lennox Berkeley because he and Poulenc were good friends.

The first performance of Pastorale, Blues and Homage was given by John Turner and the composer at St Peter’s Church, Westleton, on 4 October 2012 in that year’s William Alwyn Festival. Their recording is on Heritage HTGCD 254.