Comedy Op.14 (1972)

Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006)

Threee Shanties Op.4 (1943)

Paul Patterson (b 1947)

Comedy Op.14 (1972)

Prelude

Soliloquy

Blues

Hornpipe

Among the most popular of all wind quintets, Arnold’s Three Shanties are irresistibly entertaining treatments of traditional tunes. A decidedly tipsy ‘What shall we do with the drunken sailor?,’ which veers between Scotch snap and Spanish habanera at one point, is followed by a wistful but still amusing ‘Boney was a warrior’ and a grotesquely cheerful ‘Johnny comes down to Hilo.’ In spite of its Comedy title, the concluding piece by Paul Patterson is rather more serious – not so much in the riotous Prelude, which takes a hint from Arnold as well as a tune from Stravinsky, as in the Soliloquy with its expressive horn melody and Blues, which is not all parody as an oboe solo so touchingly confirms. The last movement is a resourcefully witty series of variations on a theme the identity of which is definitively revealed only at the end. Not that you really have to wait very long to recognise it.