The Prelude began life as a 4-clarinet piece back in the late 80s when I was an undergrad. I realized in 2004 that it could work nicely as a SATB recorder quartet movement, and decided to put it together with a fugue that also began as a 4-clarinet piece but much earlier. The original title of the fugue was "Another Lovely Fugue in D Minor" because all I ever wrote at the time were fugues.

I think the Prelude has a carousel-like quality about it, especially at the beginning. Maybe it would work on a calliope. It has low technical difficulty and so works out very well in chapter meetings where there is a broad range of playing abilities.

The fugue subject always gets a laugh when I present it at Recorder Society chapter meetings because it sounds like somebody is skipping down the lane without a care in the world. Be careful not to let your tongue get ahead of you in the 7th and 8th bars of the fugue subject, which seems to be the main problem at chapter meetings. Other tricky spots for counting in the Fugue are Bar 32 in the upper three parts when the Bass enters, and Bars 73-77, especially Bars 75 and 77 in the Alto