Composer:	E. Elgar	Suppliers:
Editor:	Dom Gregory Murray	Quintet	D/A/A/T/B
Publisher:	Novello and Co. Ltd	Publication:	Novello

This "Chanson de Matin" by Edward Elgar is one of four works recommended by Glenis Cole, then music teacher at the Christopher Whitehead Girls School, Worcester in April 1982 for possible use by the "The Schwanewede Recorder Consort" which was then on a 2-week tour in Worcester/Hereford, England. Since then I have made a number of attempts with the Schwanewede Recorder Consort, Blue Monday, Blue Tuesday as well as the Alt-Aumund Blockflötenensemble all to no avail. The problem has always been that of finding a suitable sensitive first voice.
A real pity because this arrangement for the Young Elizabethan recorder Consort, Bath by Dom Gregory Murray is very beautiful. When listening to the original string version, as a Worcester man, I am always inwardly transported high in the Malvern Hills (where I'm absolutely sure Elgar himself was at sometime or other along with the spirits of Piers Plowman and Thomas Tomkins) where it is obviously a spring morning, April-May with a clear blue sky, lying on the turf, eyes closed, listening to the odd bird or two, quiet sounds of the of a busy Great Malvern drifting up from below, and from the far distance, the steam whistle of the Worcester-Malvern train can just be discerned. Yes, Sir, this is a very evocative piece. I would love to hear well-played by a competent recorder consort.