"English String Miniatures?" Surely and why not? English composers began writing string miniatures under Elizabeth I, but they really started cranking them out under Edward V and they now show no signs of stopping. But five volumes of "English String Miniatures?" After running through everything from everybody from Elgar to Delius to Vaughan Williams to Holst to Howells to Warlock to Walton to Britten to Tippett, one might reasonably suspect that the Brits had run out of string miniatures. But no: in this, the fifth volume ...
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"English String Miniatures?" Surely and why not? English composers began writing string miniatures under Elizabeth I, but they really started cranking them out under Edward V and they now show no signs of stopping. But five volumes of "English String Miniatures?" After running through everything from everybody from Elgar to Delius to Vaughan Williams to Holst to Howells to Warlock to Walton to Britten to Tippett, one might reasonably suspect that the Brits had run out of string miniatures. But no: in this, the fifth volume of Gavin Sutherland and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia's apparently encyclopedic survey, yet more English String Miniatures have surfaced. And while they're not in the same class as the works of any of the above-mentioned composers, these works are still quite beguiling in their way. Pamela Harrison's five-movement Suite for Timothy from 1948 is a childhood charmer. Francis Chagrin's four-movement Renaissance Suite from 1969 is silly and saucy. Percy Fletcher's two-movement Folksong and...
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