Sword Dance from Hymn of the Highlands-Strathcarron is a movement from Philip Sparke’s Hymn of the Highlands in which each movement reflects a different location in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Stratcarron named after a village at the head of Loch Carron near the Isle of Skye takes the form of a sword dance which alternates between fast and slow tempi.

Durkle Bandrydge is the name of the composers imaginary world but it could very well be anyones invisible dream world with a different name. In this very versatile suite by Bruce Fraser 8 characters are featured each with its ownpeculiarities making Durkle Bandrydge such a colourful place. Do these characters differ that much from us? That is for you to find out! In the last part all characters come together in a special way.Durkle Bandrydge exists at the end ofyour street. It is invisible to humans but Durkle Bandrygators can watch us with great interest. The music will introduce you to some of the characters who live in this unusual place. The parts: Somnanbulyss who is a giant trollguarding the entrance to Durkle Bandryde. At least he is supposed to but he tends to sleep most of the time. His music is therefore very slow moving and sleepy. Long Gwysteen is a tall mysterious and somehow sophisticated character who walls around with a shell on his back. His music glides along rather gracefully. Squelfitch is a rather unpleasant and smelly character who lives in a bog which is why his music sounds rather slimy and a bit like trying to walkthrough quicksand. Perfydlia is a meddling old woman who gossips about everybody and squeals with sudden delight at the small exciting bits of tittletattle about others in the village. In the music you can hear her sudden little squealsof delight. Maryann Lovely is a beautiful young lady graceful gorgeous absolutely devine and her music is obviously just the same. Thistledoo Nicely is a lively character who spends and spends and spends with her credit card buying the latest fashion and never worries about having to pay the bills. Her music reflects her excitement when shopping and het ‘happy go lucky’ approach to life. Marsyn Edginton is the Lord of the manor the richest man in town the‘big cheese’ the man with all the power and of course the biggest house. He is very grand and his music like he could be a king. Jimmy McScotsmyn is a red haired scotsman wearing tartan cap. He misses his home country terribly and eatslots of shortbread oatcakes scotch eggs porridge and drinks an enormous amount of Scotch Wisky which helps him to have fond memories of the kind of music he would like to dance to when he was a younger man. His favourite dance is a Jig andthis is the music he remembers. Grand March of the Durkle Bandrydgators. We hope that you have enjoyed meeting these characters from Drukle Bandrydge and would invite you to listen to all the villagers now march along in a grand parade -it is a pity that you can not see them what is a wonderful sight. If you listen carefully you will hear the melodies which belong to the characters as they march past. Oh what a grand spectacle!