Peter Lawson

Song of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid

The 'Song of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid,' for the tiny (and remarkably agile!) Sopranino Recorder (or alternatively, Piccolo) and piano, is the forty-third to be written in a cycle of musical portraits of the forty-eight wild orchids of Great Britain and Ireland for various instrumental and orchestral combinations. The work also exists as 'Concertino of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid', with orchestra accompaniment.
The 'Song of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid' is in three dance-like movements, which in places, as in the other orchid portraits, employs a colour-coding scheme of harmonies and these chords are heard at the outset of the first movement, 'Introduction and Butterfly Rumba,' on the piano - light-green suffusing the white of the petals, the yellow of the anthers and the darker green of the two shiny, spoon-shaped basal leaves and bract-like leaves sheathing the stem. The 'Rumba' and indeed the last movement, 'Jig of the Moths and Butterflies,' reflect the dedicatee, Miguel Lawrence, who is half Mexican and half Northern-Irish. His virtuosity and sense of fun are amply catered for in these outer movements as well as in a cadenza in the middle of the second movement, 'Butterfly Minuet,' which, in its outer sections, is more reflective of the pastoral habitats of the orchid. The Jig's opening melody is rather weirdly tempered by the juxtaposition of the colour-coded harmonies, portraying the pollinating moths. The dancing butterflies are portrayed in less eccentric harmonic manoeuvres, the music gathering pace towards a breathless conclusion. 'Peter Lawson'

'Duration 7 minutes'