Dance Suite No. 1: Old-Time Dances, Op. 46

1. The Brown Humber (English Waltz)

2. Hazel (Tango)

3. Pool Farm (Polka)

4. Amy J. Blues (Slow Drag) [see Dance Suite No. 1, part two]

5. Sal & I (Country Two Step) [see Dance Suite No. 1, part two]

The Brown Humber, a tribute to the muddy waters of the Humber estuary, was originally composed for a school orchestra in 1977. The school was Amy Johnson High School for girls, Hull, where I taught part time during 1976–78. The Amy J. Blues was another piece from those years, which I sang to piano accompaniment at an end-of-term event. The tango is based on a song I wrote on 17 May 1967, when I was missing my sister, who was away from home on a school trip. She never let me forget the lines, ‘Hazel, though you always burned the toast, I’d not complain, if you were here to burn it once again’. Pool Farm was the housing estate where I spent my teenage years, and this polka features music composed when I was 17. The final dance, a country-style ragtime two step was composed in Edinburgh in 1980. Sara, who became my wife, had purchased an old Canadian reed organ and installed it in her flat in Drummond Place. I performed on that instrument while she played banjo. In this orchestral version, the harp takes up much of the work of the banjo.

Instrumentation

3.3.3.2. – 4.2.3.1. – Timps + perc. Harp – Str.

(Tuned and untuned percussion, 3 players: Glockenspiel, Tambourine, Triangle, Cymbals, 2 Tom Toms (high and medium), Snare Drum, Bass Drum.)