Daisy’s Dance (bassoon)

I was commissioned to compose incidental music for Jack and the Beanstalk, for young teenagers, which would also feature circus and dance skills (juggling, diabolo, unicycle, fire-eating, tap dance etc.). This would be the British entry for the European Festival of Folk Tales in Portugal.

The local boy who played Jack was a grade 8 bassoonist as well as having other circus skills. Other performers were competent instrumentalists too. In our version, the cow was called Daisy and was played by a young tap dancer.

Daisy’s Dance was written as a piece for a theatrical tap-dancing cow with Jack playing bassoon on-stage along to my off-stage guitar accompaniment and a few other instruments joining in for the central trio section.

More recently I have reworked this item in a standard format for a range of solo instruments with piano accompaniment.

I think it will work well in any pantomime situation where a costumed cow or horse performs a routine, or simply as a light-hearted instrumental solo or encore.