Here is a ten-movement suite of delightful miniatures from this Liverpudlian composer. The general mood of the set is of light and innocence with every piece having a lovely melodic touch that is really effective.
Welsh Caravan is in C and/has a great little tune’ that manages to slide effortlessly into Eb for its middle section, A return to the opening idea brings in a small touch of tremolo and an adagio coda. It is all very brief but beautifully written and effective. March of the Piper begins with an “um-ching” type of rhythm and a sliding tune interwoven that needs careful watching if you start the seemingly easy opening too fast. Loyola’s Hymn is a tune in the bass in A major and warm chords above, whilst A Lark in the Park is very fast, in two brief sections that are to be repeated and is in two voices throughout and is lots of fun. The Trip to Bowland has a rippling style of chordal structure with the tune weaving in and out as it goes making this a little harder than the others so far, “The Cat’s Back Waltz” is gentle, and in D major with a rocking two note figure accompaniment that pervades the whole piece. The Angry Woman is another very brief piece of one page in a 6/8-3/4 type of rhythm that slams around in two main voices and ends on a bang with a dissonance, A Study (for the Art Gallery) is jaunty affair with plenty of bounce and some nicely harmonised chords. Bandana (Bolero) is deliberately cod-Spanish in A major (and therefore lots of Bbs lying around), whilst the final Postlude is endearingly warm with another lovely melody that leaves you wanting to try the piece out for friends to hear: that was my immediate reaction anyway.
Yet another nice set from Houghton and not a dud movement in sight. Any moderately good player will really enjoy it, for nothing is too difficult and the music is refreshingly innocent and instantly enjoyable. Lovely.
Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)
