t h e   b a d g e r   o f   w i l t s h i r e

Instrumentation:             Bn, Hrn    

Duration:                       4’

Performance details:      -          

Recording details:          30.08.2003, Leeds, Pauline Trusselle; bsn, Jay Crossland; hrn.

Click here to hear an excerpt             Click hear to see sketches

For details of hiring the sheet music, please contact David

The piece was written for a good friend, who jokingly suggested the title of the piece at a stage when the composition was just a notion and had not yet got underway.  The title stuck, and although it has no direct relevance to the music, it set the rather comical tone for the composition.

Other than the title, the only pre-compositional plan for the piece was that it would start and finish with the mouthpiece and reed only.  Consequently the piece has a very improvisatory feel to it.  Whilst writing, the narrative I found myself adapting was that the two lines were ‘playing’ with each other.  In a manner of small children playing, the instruments ‘show-off’ to one another, and then start playing in unison (bars 27 – 38).  This state eventually becomes restless (bar 56 onwards).  A short quarrel ensues (bar 65), followed by a tantrum that results in the Horn mouthpiece being spat out, and the Bassoon reed being bitten.