We play recorder because we recognise the beauty and subtlety of the sounds it makes. It's fun to play. It's also a serious instrument with a repertoire that's bigger than many people appreciate.

We all play other instruments besides recorder, but we still derive great pleasure from playing this deceptively simple little thing.

Here are some of the things we've played over the years, in no particular order.

• Praetorius (1571 - 1621) - Dances from Terpsicore, Ballet and many other pieces.
• Corelli - several wonderful pieces
• Dowland - Earl of Essex' Galliard - click to download mp3
• Warren's Chatanooga Choo Choo
• King Henry VIIIth's Helas Madame & Pastime with Good Company
• Lyndon Hilling (b. 1935) - Celebration Rag
• Holborne - Galliard & The Choise
• Charles Gounod - Petite Symphony
• Gilbert & Sullivan - Gavotte from The Gondoliers
• Johann Heinrich Schmeltzer - Sonata a 7 Flauti
• Ally McGurk - various small pieces including Mist over the Solway, Pace Dogging & 7 Bumps
• Val Hetherington - arrangements of various Irish pieces and Christmas pieces for recorder ensemble
• Geoffrey Russell Smith (b. 1927) - A Touch of Vulgarity
• Lupi - Jectes moy sur l'herbette
• Susato - various pieces from Danserye
• Nicola McConkey - Scherzo for the Mascot (written specially for Jonathan Smith and premiered in 2003), Pezzo Piccolo per Patti (for our greatest supporter), several special arrangements of nursery rhymes for school children and a recorder arrangement of Basin Street Blues.
• George Gershwin, arr. Brian Bonsor - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
• Leopold Mozart - the Toy Symphony (in which members of Nova Cantica bravely played the toys for us at the Georgian Fair concert - see photo below).
• Several dances from the Playford Collection
• The Theme from Star Wars and Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter for school workshops.
• Giles Farnaby - A Toye
• ...and of course, some of our favourite pieces by that illustrius composer, Anon...

We've also played music by William Byrd, Rossi, Malvezzi, Thomas Ford, John Dowland, Harry Warren and Gervaise, as well as several anonymous pieces. As you can see, our tastes are wide-ranging, and we are just as happy playing a 20th-century syncopated rag as a baroque sonata.

Some of the churches we play in are very cold!

Members of Nova Cantica obviously enjoying themselves as they stand behind us, playing the toy instruments for Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony.