Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Poulaines were the medieval shoes with long pointed (and sometimes curled) toes. The title therefore evokes both the medieval feel of the piece and, because of the asymmetrical 5/8 rhythm perhaps the ungainliness of such fashion faux pas. 5/8 is in fact one of my favourite time signatures, particularly because of the way you can manipulate the 3+2 division into 2+3 to give a melody a lovely rhythmic impulse.

The piece makes use of the timbral variation of singing (in unison or at any convenient octave) into the recorder, mainly in accompaniment parts. This is done to broaden the timbral range of the piece. It is not a representation of the groans of those who wore the poulaines, though archeology suggests that bunions were frequent in the eras when the shoes were popular. In this piece you should use a gentle voice that just slightly colours the recorder sound. Other pieces (The voice of the crocodile for instance) require a more aggressive vocal sound. If you don't feel confident singing into your recorder the piece will work perfectly well if just played straight. But do give it a go.

Whenever a piece is called a dance always think about how you would move to it. Embodying the feel of the dance will help create the right musical effect.

Work Details

Year: 2026

Instrumentation: Soprano, alto, tenor, bass recorders.

Duration: 2 min.

Difficulty: Medium

Commission note: Commissioned by the American Recorder Society