In the second of a series focusing on compositions for solo woodwind instruments I’m having a listen to the solo-recorder composition A Rune for St. Mary’s by contemporary English composer Robin Walker (b. York, 1953)1.
The first impression of the piece, from the opening section, is that it has a very pastoral quality to it. This could be due in part to the choice of instrumentation (a solo descant recorder), but also due to the simple flowing pentatonic and diatonic lines that start off the piece. I find it particularly hard to describe when something sounds pastoral (and it means different things in different regions and traditions), but this piece conjures imagery which matches the way that I imagine the wide English countryside. Similarly, sections of the piece appear to draw a lot from the English folk song tradition (to my ears) and that contributes to the mood of the composition.
The composition appears begins in the key of A minor and flows in-and-out of a minor locrian tonality within A minor. This is achieved by often incorporating the b6 degree of the A minor scale in both ascending and descending lines. This is done sporadically and it’s a clear shift in the mood of the piece. This tonalities may sound both exotic and familiar, but it is not often that you hear pieces in minor locrian tonality, and juxtaposing this with a natural minor tonality is a very strong effect.
The piece contains a section towards the middle of the piece (from around the 2:58 mark on the link above) where there’s a glissando technique used on the recorder. I don’t have the score for this particular piece, but I would love to see how this is notated. This is quite a jarring short moment in the tune after having been treated to very tonal sections preceding it. After this chromatic-glissandi interlude, the melodic lines continue in a familiar fashion, but the composer makes use of more exotic tonalities which are just subtly different enough to keep the listener engaged.
This particular recording is very interesting for the way the space left in the piece for silences are left to resonate in the naturally reverberant environment in which this was recorded. The piece has lent itself very naturally to these acoustics and I would wonder if the composer had this in mind while composing the piece (given that it was composed in 2003, this seems likely!). With regards to the recording, the label which released this particular version had this to say in the release announcement notes:
While in Stockport, John Turner will record Walker’s solo recorder piece A Rune for St Mary’s. St. Mary’s is the parish church of Stockport and the ‘rune’ the piece is based on is a thousand-year-old stone cross in a field above the farm where the composer lives in the Pennine Hills of Northern England. From some angles it looks like a cross – from other angles it seems to be a primitive stone face presiding over the hillside.
This is a piece I’ve listened to many times since choosing it for an entry in the log, and without having found a score to supplement the listening experience it has been interesting to listen out for the very subtle modifications that the composer colours his composition with. Similarly, this is the first entry dedicated to a contemporary composer, which I hope to do more of in coming entries as this was hugely enjoyable.
Further reading on Robin Walker (from David Matthews – Composer)
References: 1. https://divineartrecords.com/tag/robin-walker/ Recording: Robin, W., Turner, J. 2019. 'A Rune for St. Mary's' Turning Towards You. Barnsley: Divine Art. [online]