Four Country Dances (Bennett)
Movements
i A New Dance ii Lady Day iii The Mulberry Garden iv Nobody’s Jig
Notes
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett was an English composer well known for his film scores and jazz performances as well as over 200 concert works. This setting of four country dances for soprano saxophone or oboe was written in New York in 2000 and dedicated to saxophonist John Harle and oboist Nicholas Daniel. The dances are arrangements of tunes taken from Playford’s Dancing Master which was a collection of 535 popular tunes for country dancing, published between 1651-1728 and edited by John Playford (1623-1686) amongst others. Richard Rodney Bennett’s arrangements are unmistakably his own, with the piano providing a beautiful accompaniment to these simple English melodies.
