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This brief collection of Susan’s favorite music offers variety in a small package – duos and trios – while celebrating a rich life that ended far too soon.  These pieces are short enough that separate parts are not needed, but play-along recordings with one part missing are available to ARS members at www.americanrecorder.org/SusanBurnsMLE.

Norfolk, by William Billings, 1794, arranged by Victor Eijkhout as SAT high and TBGb low trios.
Variations on a Welsh Hymn Tune “Hyfrydol” by Rowland Huw Prichard, 1811, arranged by Eric Haas as an AB duo.
Trio on Slane, or Be Thou My Vision, arranged by David Hurd as an ATB trio.
Star of the County Down, arranged by Glen Shannon as a SAB trio.

Norfolk is one of the hymns or anthems in William Billings’ The Continental Harmony, a volume that combines choral settings of original texts with a basic introduction to music notation and performance. Victor Eijkhout is an Austin-based composer and performer whose work spans wind ensembles, jazz and pop bands, choirs, and diverse instrumental combinations. His Quo Vadis? was the 2023 Play-the-Recorder-Month composition. You can find his compositions and arrangements, in particular for large groups of recorders, at https://eijkhout.net. He has other entries in the ARS Members Library, available to members at americanrecorder.org.

The Welsh hymn tune Hyfrydol is the best known composition of Rowland Huw Prichard, a textile worker and amateur musician. A number of hymn texts have been set to this popular melody; Peter Mayer’s Blue Boat Home was the lyric in Susan’s UUC congregation. Eric Haas has managed the von Huene Workshop, Inc. for 35 years and published numerous collections of solo, duet, and ensemble repertoire for recorders. His Fantasia on a Shape Note Hymn was the 2018 Play-the-Recorder-Month selection and he received the ARS Presidential Special Honor Award in 2019.

The tune Slane, named for the hill in County Meath mentioned in the 5th-century Confessions of St. Patrick, has its origin in Irish folk song. Originally set to the ballad text “With my love on the road,” Slane is now widely known through the hymn “Be thou my vision,” an early 20th-century versification of an 8th-century text. David Hurd’s “Trio on ‘Slane’” distributes bits of the melody in a conversation among three recorders. Hurd is organist and director of music at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in midtown Manhattan. For nearly four decades he was Professor of Church Music at The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, and is now a board member of the New York Recorder Guild. His Sonata in 3 for 4 was the 2026 Play-the-Recorder-Month composition.

Star of the County Down is an Irish ballad from the late 19th century based on an older traditional melody, frequently in a 4 meter but Susan preferred it as a waltz. Glen Shannon is a composer, performer and Co-Director of the Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra. He is editor of the Members’ Library and the Play-the-Recorder-Month editions that come with the American Recorder magazine. His The Harmonious Blockflute was the 2011 Play-the-Recorder-Month composition and he received the ARS Presidential Special Honor Award in 2021.