Flapping Duck Song

A playfully humorous nature poem to get you quacking along with the ducks…

This song can be variously arranged. In general the second voice can be replaced by an instrument, and the publisher is offering an arrangement for male choir (accompanied). I encourage an absurd camped-up operatic rendering — though that can't be achieved in my computer playbacks. In my recording I have had to use choir sounds rather than solo voices, owing to the lack of suitable sound samples.

The accompaniment used in my recording isn't a zither as some people have thought, but instrument 88 from the standard General MIDI set, which is described as Synth lead 8 (bass & lead). This or an electric guitar would be particularly suitable where a stronger sound is required to balance with a choir; to my ears a piano, although workable, is a bit bland for this one.

I wrote this song to entertain a Re-evaluation Counselling group who wanted something light-hearted and positive in spirit. At the time I was studying at Exeter University and staying in a student residence at the top of a little west-draining valley on the campus. The stream in this little valley had been formed into a series of artificial ponds that were frequented by ducks (and other waterfowl), whose antics caused me much amusement. The valley scooped up and channelled gales from a westerly point, giving the copse at the top, in which my residence nestled, a noisy buffeting, occasionally blowing over the odd tree. The song captures some of that experience in a light-hearted way…

The Fantasy, like the song on which it elaborates (see above), is a kittenish celebration of colour, rhythm, falling feathers and autumn gales, and the quacking and flapping of ducks.