Your Recorder Community

A quartet of bass recorders is such a great sound. In this piece, the composer puts them together in a jar and shakes them up to see what they do – happily, they get along fine and end up having a lively and raucous conversation. Tight interplay among the parts is essential, as the composer notes, because the quick motives get bandied about and there is almost never any down time. Aside from the ensemble expectations at a tempo marked “Allegro troppo”, technical challenges include finicky low notes like Ab and F#, syncopated group gestures, precise articulation markings and overlapping scalar figures running in both directions. Fast tonguing and clear tone can be difficult to maintain on the bigger instruments, but Warren’s live multitrack recording makes it sound effortless. Grab your bass buddies and give this one your full attention!