Killer Scones and Clotted Cream by rlburkh

Killer Scones and Clotted Cream is dedicated to Cayla Bellamy and Ann Bradfield. The work grew out of a conversation with Cayla, who once worked as a baker, about her expert, “killer,” scone making. Of course, scones must be eaten with English clotted cream and so I had a title in search of a piece. After some research on the laborious production of clotted cream, I based the work on three folk songs, Strawberry Fair, Sweet Nightingale, and The Spotted Cow from the English counties of Cornwall and Devon. Those two locales engage in a great rivalry for who has the best clotted cream. Some of the musical effects in the piece will make sense knowing that clotted cream involves several days of letting milk set still in a large bowl while scraping off the “clots” periodically. The work is a bit of a competition piece between the bassoon and the saxophone with a final coming together of scones and cream at the end.