A Peace of the Acton

A Peace of the Acton is a colourful musical portrait of the Wm. S. Haynes Flute Company and its workshop in Acton, Massachusetts, written as a love letter to my friends and former colleagues there, and to celebrate ten years as Haynes European Artist-in-Residence which I marked in 2024.

The title is a three-way piece of wordplay.

There is the familiar expression “a piece of the action”. There is Acton, home of the Haynes workshop. And there is peace, because the piece begins in the quiet, leafy surroundings outside the factory before we metaphorically open the doors and enter a completely different world.

Musically, the journey is very clear:

PEACEFUL → MECHANISED → HEROIC

We begin outside among the trees, birds and sun-dappled New England landscape. Then the workshop doors open and suddenly we hear the world of flute making: hissing solder, hammering, stamping, polishing machines and the ordered mechanical activity of craftspeople building instruments.

Finally, that machinery gives way to an optimistic, motivational finale marked, quite literally:

“Rocky training montage vibe.” (!)

The piece lasts approximately 5 minutes and was written specifically so that the Haynes team themselves could perform it together at the 2024 NFA Convention in San Antonio. The world premiere took place at the NFA Exhibitors’ Concert on 1 August 2024, with me playing the prominent Piccolo part alongside my Haynes colleagues.

Quick details

• Flute ensemble / flute choir

• Duration: approximately 5 minutes

• Written for the Wm. S. Haynes Flute Company

• Dedicated to my Haynes friends and colleagues in celebration of ten years as European Artist-in-Residence

• World premiere: NFA Convention, San Antonio, 1 August 2024

• 1 Solo Piccolo

• 5 Concert Flute Parts

• 2 Alto Flute Parts, or 1 Alto + 1 Bass Flute Part

• Piccolo and Flute 1 carry the most advanced material

• Remaining concert-flute parts are deliberately more accessible

• Extended techniques include Explosive Articulation and Residual Tone

• Three-part musical journey: serene → mechanised → heroic

• Particularly suited to advanced school, university, community and festival flute ensembles

• Printed score purchasers can request complimentary PDF individual flute parts

Instrumentation & player levels

• Solo Piccolo
  Advanced – a prominent, almost soloistic part, particularly at the beginning

• Flute 1
  Advanced – Advanced High School / Pre-College

• Flutes 2–5
  Intermediate to Upper Intermediate

• Alto Flute 1
  Upper Intermediate to Advanced

• Alto Flute 2
  Upper Intermediate to Advanced

• Bass Flute, optional alternative to Alto 2
  Upper Intermediate to Advanced

The Piccolo part is deliberately the most exposed and technically demanding voice in the ensemble. I played it myself at the premiere, and particularly in the opening section it functions almost as a solo line above the rest of the group.

Flute 1 also carries stronger material, while the remaining concert-flute parts are consciously more approachable.

That was important because the original ensemble consisted of my Haynes colleagues, whose playing experience ranged from excellent amateur and semi-professional players to professional-level flutists.

As with much of my ensemble music, the aim is for every player to feel engaged and stretched, but nobody to feel overwhelmed.

Outside the workshop

The Haynes workshop in Acton is surrounded by trees and greenery, and I wanted the opening to capture that sense of quiet, light and nature.

Imagine woods, lakes, birds, squirrels and chipmunks, with sunlight filtering through the trees.

The harmony is deliberately rich and colourful, with the sort of extended jazz-influenced chords I love: added notes, ninths, elevenths and altered colours creating a warm, slightly luminous sound-world.

There is also a particularly geeky origin for one of those chords.

I once watched an interview in which a child asked Jacob Collier what his favourite chord was at that moment. He played one.

I thought:

“That’s gorgeous. I’m using that.”

So I did.

That chord became the first chord, and part of the harmonic DNA of the peaceful opening.

The workshop doors open

Then the doors open.

There is a very deliberate point in the score where the audience should almost be able to hear themselves entering the Haynes workshop.

The natural world disappears and is replaced by the extraordinary collection of sounds involved in handmade flute manufacture:

• the hiss of soldering

• the hammering and forming of metal

• the stamping of key cups

• the whirring of polishing machines

• repetitive mechanical rhythms

• the sense of an ordered workshop working constantly around you

This section becomes much more rhythmic and mechanised, using the flute ensemble itself almost as an industrial sound machine.

For anyone who has actually walked through the Haynes workshop, the contrast between the quiet leafy surroundings outside and the intense activity behind the doors is immediate.

That contrast is the centre of the piece.

From machinery to heroism

After the mechanical middle section, the music gradually transforms again.

The final section is marked:

“Rocky training montage style.”

That is essentially the character I want.

It should feel optimistic, determined, energetic and unapologetically heroic: the musical equivalent of rolling up your sleeves and deciding that, yes, we absolutely can do this.

The piece therefore moves from the beauty surrounding the workshop, through the physical reality of making flutes, and finally towards a celebration of the people behind the instruments.

For me, that last part is important.

This isn't really a piece about a building or a manufacturing process. It is ultimately about colleagues and friends whom I had worked alongside for a decade.

Extended techniques

A Peace of the Acton includes:

• Explosive Articulation

• Residual Tone

Alongside these techniques, the mechanised section uses rhythmic and timbral effects to evoke the sounds of the working flute factory.

Why A Peace of the Acton?

The title began with the expression:

“a piece of the action.”

Then came Acton, Massachusetts, home of the Haynes workshop.

And because the opening of the piece is genuinely peaceful, the final title became:

A Peace of the Acton

It describes both the place and the journey through it.

I certainly don't know of another flute ensemble work written specifically to portray both the surroundings of a flute factory and the sounds and life of the instrument makers working inside it, and that makes this piece particularly personal to me.

The Bass Flute option

The original version was written for two Alto Flutes.

There was a practical reason: I was writing specifically for instruments produced by Haynes, and at that time Haynes did not make a Bass Flute.

After the premiere, I created an alternative Bass Flute part to replace Alto Flute 2, making the scoring more flexible for other flute ensembles.

It isn't simply the identical line transferred onto another instrument. In places the Bass Flute drops an octave below the original Alto part, giving the ensemble a deeper and more substantial low end.

The piece therefore works equally well with:

2 Alto Flutes

or

1 Alto Flute + 1 Bass Flute

The Bass Flute alternative is available with the work.

Performance history

A Peace of the Acton received its world premiere at the National Flute Association Convention in San Antonio on 1 August 2024, during the Exhibitors’ Concert.

The performers were members of the Wm. S. Haynes team, with me playing Piccolo, exactly as the piece had been conceived. The official NFA programme lists Cody Bolton, Steven Finley, Gareth McLearnon, Mary Morse, Blair Mothersbaugh, Aiven O’Leary, Joy Roberts and Korinne Smith.

For me, that was really the point of the piece: not simply writing something dedicated to my colleagues, but actually making music together with them.

Printed score + complimentary PDF parts

If you purchase the printed score, you can also request a complimentary PDF set of the individual flute parts during checkout.

These are provided to save conductors and ensemble directors the need to photocopy individual parts from the printed score.

Frequently asked questions

What level is A Peace of the Acton?
The ensemble is deliberately mixed-level. The Piccolo and Flute 1 parts are Advanced, while Flutes 2–5 are more approachable and sit broadly between Intermediate and Upper Intermediate. The low-flute parts are best suited to confident players.

Is the Piccolo part particularly difficult?
Yes. It is the most prominent and technically demanding part in the piece and functions almost as a solo voice at the beginning.

Why is the piece called A Peace of the Acton?
It combines the expression “a piece of the action”, the town of Acton, where the Haynes workshop is located, and the genuinely peaceful character of the opening music.

What does the piece actually portray?
The opening represents the quiet, leafy surroundings outside the Haynes workshop. The doors then open onto a mechanised world of soldering, hammering, polishing and flute manufacture, before the piece finishes with an optimistic, heroic celebration.

Why does the ending say “Rocky training montage style”?
Because that is exactly the character I want: energetic, optimistic, motivational and slightly larger than life.

Do I need two Alto Flutes?
No. The original scoring uses two Altos, but Alto 2 can be replaced by the alternative Bass Flute part.

Does A Peace of the Acton use extended techniques?
Yes. These include Explosive Articulation and Residual Tone, alongside rhythmic and timbral effects used to evoke the sounds of the flute workshop.

How long is the piece?
Approximately 5 minutes.

Are individual PDF parts available with the printed score?
Yes. Purchasers of the printed score can request complimentary PDF individual flute parts when ordering.

BASS FLUTE PART DOWNLOAD

This piece was originally written for two altos (and the recording below is with two altos) so it can be played easily in ensembles that don’t have bass flutes - but in order to be flexible I provided an optional bass flute part to cover the (lower) alto part. You can download that part for free here.