Commissioned by Sandy Hay ad the Birmingham Flute Choir, this piece was given the title “Fondant Forward” because of Birmingham’s links with Chocolate Making (fondant) and the city’s official motto is “FORWARD” - so it seemed like a perfect start to get the creative juices flowing!

The piece begins with “FONDANT” very much “melted chocolate” - dark, heavy, gooey, lazy, luxurious chords melt from one to another with an easy-going melted melody, first in the contras, then in the altos getting gradually richer ever more intense in flavour and colour.

“FORWARD” starts with percussive effects in the accompaniment and a swashbuckling, heroic theme in the Alto Flute 1 part. This theme is passed around a little, deconstructed, played with, subverted before we are introduced to a noble version of our original “FONDANT” theme but now rather than lazy and luxuriating - we are heroic, and yearning - climbing every higher - before the FORWARD theme finally emerges in the contras with the rest of the Flute Choir riffing on dotted rhythms to bring the hole thing home to a finish with a BAM!

Instrumentation:

Alto Flutes x 3 (at least two per part)
Bass Flutes x 2 (at least two per part)
Contrabass Flutes: x 2