IAN SHANAHAN - Trinity College Recorder Grade Books Review PDF

TRINITY COLLEGE 2003: DESCANT RECORDER GRADE BOOKS
(INITIAL TO GRADE 5)
Dr Ian Shanahan, January 2004.
The Studio: Quarterly Magazine of the Music Teachers Association of NSW
Vol.10 No.1 pp.4546, February 2004.
Readers will notice in the heading above that I have placed the designation descant between
inverted commas. Why? This terminology is, I confess, one of my btes noires: the British (together with
a significant cadre of local diehards) for reasons best known to themselves continue to insist on referring
in such a quaint way to the instrument everybody else around the world knows as the soprano recorder.
But no matter. For although this is merely one among several objections (detailed below) I maintain
regarding this Trinity College series, fortunately the good far outweighs the bad. My first thought about
these grade books was that their presentation is immaculate: between strikingly variegated covers, all of
which feature multihued watercolour impressions of a recorder, the typeface of both the recorder and
piano parts could not be bettered in terms of clarity, design, size and legibility. Moreover, I have not
managed to locate any typographical errors thus far!
What of the music itself? Stylistically, it spans the Renaissance only a single genuine case,
however, by Francisco de la Torre (14831504), whose La Spagna solo (Grade 5) connotes a standard
bass-line and harmonic progression of the same name through the Baroque (one encounters the usual
suspects such as Telemann, Vivaldi, Handel and Rameau but also less famous composers, including
Louis Caix dHervelois and Jean Hotteterre, as well as transitional characters like the blind 17th-century
Dutchman Jacob van Eyck, whose Der Fluyten Lusthof has become almost mandatory repertoire amongst
recorder players), folk music (focussing particularly upon the Irish as with Grade 5s Belfast Hornpipe
and Anglo-American), ending up with many short pieces by contemporary composers ... though none of
these can reasonably be described as modern. An emphasis has also been placed upon jazz in Trinity
Colleges menu herein: examples abound, such as Alan Arnolds Always Leave em Smilin (Grade 1);
Geoffry [sic] Russell-Smiths Fred and Ginger (Grade 3 some nice tricky syncopations here, in homage
to the famous dance duo); Johnny Hodges jazz standards Uptown Blues (Grade 4) and Parachute Jump
(Grade 5); and Douglas Coombes effective Rumba (Grade 5).
These latter categories lead me to a trenchant criticism, alas. Although the 20th- (and 21st?-)
century compositions are in themselves all quite laudable, at the same time they are thoroughly
conservative musically. One might be tempted to put such atavism down to current musical fashions or
instead to the obvious technical constraints imposed at beginner recorder levels, yet neither of these
excuses bear scrutiny. Among the jazz pieces there is not even a fleeting reference to bebop or beyond (I
can think of various lovely simple ubiquities like John Coltranes Naima or Miles Daviss All Blues that
would begin to counteract this serious lapse), and the art music vignettes omnipresent tonal/modal
centricity insinuate that the historic compositional discoveries of the 20th century never happened! What
of serialism or polytonality, say? Even on a performative plane, the extraordinary developments in
recorder-playing techniques during the past 40 years have been entirely bypassed: many multiphonics and
microtones, for instance, require absolutely no technical or conceptual leaps in playing ability whatsoever
e.g. finger the low F, blow a little harder than usual, and voil!, a multiphonic emerges to encompass
high D; lift the lowest two fingers instead and you will elicit a pitch one quartertone higher and these
could easily have been incorporated into the newer works. In relation to folk musics, why not represent
some other regions of the planet like Asia or South America, where technically eligible tunes abound?
(Some will also grumble about the paucity of women composers to be found within this series, the sole
exception being Joan Swift and Marjorie Smales playful Happy Dragon; the fine Baroque composer
Barbara Strozzi might also have been a prime contender for Trinity College to consider.)
~1~
Enough carping for now. I find the listing of each grades scale-and-arpeggio prerequisites inside
the respective volumes front cover to be a helpful aide-mmoire, while at the rear of each book one
reads:
All pieces in this volume have been edited with regard to current concepts of performance practice.
Dynamics and articulation have been suggested to assist candidates and their teachers in developing
their own interpretations. Any performance indications supplied by the editor appear in square
brackets [ ] and editorial slurs have a short line through them. Recommended metronome markings
are given as a useful performance guide for all pieces. Those without square brackets are the
composers own indication of the appropriate speed for the music.
Of course such care is praiseworthy, yet editorial intervention could have gone even further by
occasionally proposing some handy alternative recorder fingerings and, for La Spagna and the Baroque
pieces, tasteful ornamentation.
To end, I offer some ideas to the publisher for future editions of their recorder grade books.
Composers from bygone eras all have their dates of birth and death provided. Why not do so for every
composer herein? (It would also be advantageous to reveal each composers nationality, even if this can
sometimes be guessed from copyright assignations as with the Welsh[?] composer John R. Williamson.)
Yet beyond these publications exam rle, they also serve a marvellous function by augmenting recorder
players repertories. Despite my fault-finding, Trinity College nevertheless deserves to be congratulated
on their largely excellent soprano recorder grade books.
Dr Ian Shanahan is a Sydney-based composer and professional recorder player who specializes in
the performance of the post-1960 recorder repertoire.
~2~

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TRINITY COLLEGE 2003: DESCANT RECORDER GRADE BOOKS

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