Falcon Flight was written in 1993 and is Smith Brindle’s penultimate work involving the guitar. He had used the combination of wind instrument with guitars on two occasions in small chamber music settings: Hathor at Philae (1982) for recorder and guitar, and an alternate version of the 1979 voice and guitar work, Two Poems of Manley Hopkins, in which Smith Brindle added a second guitar and flute part.
The piece alternates sections between a driving and fluid Allegro and a lyrical Adagio, both meant to represent the different aspects of a falcon in motion. Interplay between the instruments is highly imitative in both Allegro and Adagio sections. The melodic material is based on short cells, which are usually within a limited intervallic range. At times these single note lines are similar in nature to Bach’s works for solo instruments in that the conjunct lines imply different voices. This has the effect of creating a texture that is denser than one would expect from a duo. The guitar writing displays an idiomatic approach that can be found in several other of Smith-Brindle’s works beginning in 1975, such as the Chaconne and Interludes for two guitars from 1978.
