Eight Canons (from Goldberg Variations)

These arrangements are mostly faithful to Bach's keyboard original, though there are inevitable changes of octave to keep the music within a comfortable recorder range. They are three-part pieces but you will need five sizes of recorder to play them all. The intention is that players will study all the parts, either individually or in a group, rather than being confined to one particular one. There are no separate parts; all players play from the score so they can follow Bach's working out of his scheme: canon at the unison, at the second, at the third etc. They should act as studies in musical awareness as well as in recorder technique.