Product Description
The Short Suite for Winds (originally Short Suite for Strings) is an arrangement of a string suite written in 1971 and included in a CD compilation issued in 1998. It is in four movements, each with a different character: 1. Rustic Dance – pictures a rural community engaging in a rather elaborate outdoor dance sequence ; 2. Gavotte – represents the very opposite: a formal and elegant ballroom dance; 3. Aria – is really a single song-like melody over simple accompaniment, building to a central climax before subsiding into silence; 4. Moto Perpetuo – (Continuous Motion) is a bustling melody in 6/8, while a contrasting tune with a slower rhythm in 3/4 is played against it. The movement ends with an emphatic sforzando chord. Although it has had several live performances both in the UK and abroad, the majority of performances have been BBC studio broadcasts. During the 1960’s and early ’70’s the composer was mainly writing similar light classical pieces for the BBC, most of which were subsequently published and recorded.ย The technical demands have been segmented by the arranger to make the piece more accessible without losing its intensity.