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The District Line is both an underground and an overground line. In musical terms a "ground" is a repeated phrase. In this movement some of the interest is under the ground (played by the Elementary Sopranos) and some is over it! This movement also suggests that passengers join and leave the train during its progress.
Double-Decker portrays a stately bus journey. The main melody downstairs is played by the Elementary Sopranos while upstairs a melody is shared by the Sopranino and Advanced Sopranos.
This piece was originally written for the Gravesham Recorder Festival and a lot of the performers' parents were commuters on the North Kent line where train cancellations were not unknown!
The Black Cab goes round in circles very quickly until it gets stuck in traffic. Tempers get a little frayed and the Sopranino shows its impatience as everything snarls up.
The pieces in the Festival Series were written to provide opportunities for recorder players of different abilities to play together. They can all be played by small groups, even one to a part, but they were originally intended for mass-playing - over 300 players on some occasions. The scoring for the series is:
- an elementary soprano part on a limited number of notes -
- an intermediate soprano part requiring more notes but still rhythmically straightforward -
- an intermediate alto/tenor part using the octave G to G'; rhythmically similar in standard to the soprano part -
- more advanced parts for sopranino, soprano, alto and tenor (and also optional bass). These are more chromatic and use syncopations. The sopranino part is the most challenging.
Details of the technical requirements for each piece are given in the preface of the score:
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