Description
This arrangement is based on a set of variations on the famous tune known as Greensleeves, originally for solo recorder and bass. These anonymous variations are found in John Walsh’s The Division Flute of 1706, a publication aimed at a burgeoning market of amateur recorder players in London at the start of the eighteenth century.
The roots of the beautiful Greensleeves melody are found in a popular bass line and its associated chord structure known as the ‘Romanesca’, used by improvising musicians across Europe during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This ground bass offers seemingly endless possibilities of transformation and characterisation, and has been explored by generations of musicians past and present.
This arrangement was written for the recorder quintet Fontanella in 2010, and was recorded by the group for the album The Nightingale’s Response (BCR 015) in 2015. A quartet version is also available here
Audio Excerpt
Performed by Fontanella on The Nightingale’s Response BCR 015
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