Mark Houghton : New Forest Suite : DOz

Mark Houghton

Les Productions D’Oz: 22 pages

I have seen many pieces by Mark Houghton, and this latest one is every bit as good .It is in 6 movements , and is descriptive of the New Forest in Hampshire, near where Mark now lives, a forest incidentally I remember very well, from my times holidaying with my parents ( yes! that long ago!) in Boscombe , near Bournemouth .

The opening movement is Prelude : Morning Stroll, and Andante in A Major which is in 2, or sometimes 3 voices with a gentle , mostly quaver melody that moves around a fair bit, and does keep you on your toes for a while underpinned by some pleasant harmony work, often unexpected but always beautifully tonal.

Galliard is next .Set in 3 / 4 as an Allegro this has a number of melodies and themes that do mostly return often, slightly varied .Again, often not what you might expect harmonically, but nevertheless, a very endearing piece.

The Mysterious Hare, as the title suggests is full of little oddities, and perhaps the most modern harmonically as the hare bounds around, doing obviously unexpected things .The fingerboard is fully used throughout and parts of this might catch the player out for a while!

New Forest Plains is a flowing Andante with a lovely melody and often written in quavers, mostly in the top voice, but occasionally in the middle one.

Wind Through The Forest is a 3 / 4 Andantino in A Minor with a mixture of straight quavers and triplet quavers often being used, except for the middle section which suddenly changes into semi – quavers before returning to the opening idea towards the end.

The final movement Country Dance is an Allegretto in 3/8 and begins with bare fifths as the bass line over which a dancing melody of quavers and semi – quavers takes the lead. This is the longest movement and builds to a nice, friendly climax ending on a fortissimo slightly altered A Major chord.

This is a lovely set of pieces, which many will enjoy playing and which I can see audiences getting a lot out of too!

Chris Dumigan