16 Variations on an Irish Jig. For Recorder Quintet ATTBG

Score and Five Parts

I love variations. My favourite piece of Brahms are the Haydn Variations for Orchestra, my favourite piece by Elgar the Enigma Variations. When the Ensemble Pipelife asked me in September 2013 to contribute something to their British programme called The Silver Swan I surfed on Youtube (looking for Irish recorder) and found a young Irishman who played three old Irish tunes on his soprano recorder. The second tune fascinated me right away and I had the idea of writing the variations about it. What I like so much about this form is that everything arouses out of one small cell - and then heads in all the different emotional directions. So it combines the strongest unity with the largest variety. Later I got to know the name of the tune: The Swallowtail Jig. The Swallowtail is one of the most eye-catching butterflies of our regions and as free and unpredictable as it flies around the melody moves - and so do the variations.

The Ensemble Pipelife has recorded the piece in November 2016, the Album was published in spring 2016. This recording is from the legendary Tokyo Concert on the 12th of October 2016, where the Consort Company by Takashi Yasui played the first concert ever that was only dedicated to my works.

Here you see a video from the first five variations, played by Ensemble Pipelife:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f3-NA1dOmA