An Adventure Suite for
Soprano or Alto Recorder & Piano (2017)

​Prelude: The Seafront
The Walmer Beach Reel
Matelote en Rondeau
Walmer Castle Theme & Variations
Vallum Mare is an intermediate-level adventure suite exploring the past and present of Walmer and Deal in Kent, England.  This beautiful location, seven miles northeast of Dover, is believed to have been Julius Caesar's landing site, in 55 BC. The name Walmer is derived from the Latin term vallum mare, or 'wall by the sea'. 

​An additional original work referencing Walmer is the popular duet, On Walmer Beach.  On that feature page, you can read more about the history of Walmer and Deal, and the story of the composer's residence there from 2015-2017.

The Vallum Mare Suite contains four movements, all of which are currently published separately. Kindly scroll down the page, to find score purchasing links for each piece, videos, and so forth.  The movements are published as follows:
  1. Prelude: The Seafront - ABRSM Publishing & Schott Music 
  2. The Walmer Beach Reel - ABRSM Publishing
  3. Matelote en Rondeau - Pantokrator Publications 
  4. Walmer Castle Theme & Variations - Pantokrator Publications​

The entire suite is available either for Soprano (Descant) or Alto (Treble) Recorder & Piano.  The Descant version is also suited to the Oboe; the Treble version to the Flute.
Prelude: The Seafront
Soprano or Alto & Piano
Leading recorder player Sarah Jeffery performs the Alto Recorder version & introduces her new Schott Music collaboration, My Favourite Melodies Volume 2.  Composer Althea Talbot-Howard & pianist Dominic Saunders give the video world premiere on Descant Recorder, in 2019.  
To purchase
Click on the images below
The Walmer Beach Reel
Soprano or Alto & Piano
Former pupil Kelsie Mason performs on Descant at West Road Concert Hall with pianist Dominic Saunders, whilst Althea & Teresa Manese perform the Alto version at ABRSM's head offices in London Wall Place.
To purchase
Kindly click on the images
Matelote en rondeau & The Walmer Castle Theme & Variations
​Soprano Recorder/Oboe or Alto Recorder/Flute & Piano
Former pupil Jedidiah Thwala performs on Descant at West Road Concert Hall, with pianist Dominic Saunders. 
Former pupil Adeline Adefioye performs on Descant at West Road Concert Hall, with pianist Dominic Saunders. ​
To purchase Matelote & the Variations, together in one PDF
Kindly send a message via the Contact Page.
Price: £9.50 (@US$12.30)​
Based in London, England, international prizewinning musician Althea Talbot-Howard is a classical composer who began her professional career in 1992 as a soloist and orchestral guest principal. In 2005, Gramophone Magazine called her “a superb oboist”.  A graduate of Girton College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music; she won Third Prize in the Paris-Ville d'Avray International Oboe Competition in 2007; and was one of twelve equal prizewinners in the Ora Singers Christmas Gift Composition Competition in 2019. 
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Of Afro-British ancestry, she is a 12th-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who formalized Britain’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; and therefore a 14th-generation descendant of King James I & VI, who commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible.  Both anti-slavery and Christian themes feature strongly in her compositional output.