“The Soft Complaining Flute” (Dark Windsongs) (Alto Flute and Voice)

“The Soft Complaining Flute” by Howard Niblock is a musical setting for voice and alto flute of a text by John Dryden, it forms part of the series Dark Windsongs. “The Soft Complaining Flute” sets a familiar text by Dryden [the fourth stanza of his “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”]. It also borrows and reworks selected motives from the equally familiar setting of that text by George Frideric Handel. The work is part of a series of five pieces for voice and various woodwind instruments under the general title “Dark Windsongs,” which can be performed either individually or as a set.