Five Folksong arrangements [done as incidental music for Arthur Miller's play 'The Crucible']
These settings were done as incidental music for the Weymouth College drama department's performance of The Crucible [Arthur Miller]. I used versions of these folksongs as had been exported to New England, although there is no real variation from the various versions found here in Dorset. The arrangements are for a quartet comprising Soprano Saxophone [doubling Alto sax], Viola, Clarinet [doubling bass clarinet] and Cello and these are good LIVE RECORDINGS! - a rarity for me. The players are: Julie Trevett, David Willets, John Condor and Damian Knollys.
Cupid the Ploughboy
The Cruel Mother
The False Knight Upon the Road
Pity Poor Labourers
I Will Give My Love an Apple
I made a piano 'transcription' - greatly embellished! - which Duncan Honeybourne very kindly played through for me one evening (in St Mary's church, Dorchester) and the ever-generous Brian Sayles recorded on his excellent equipment for me. Duncan had had very little time to look these over; it is once more his extraordinary powers of sight-reading that enabled him to perform these difficult pieces without too many blemishes: