Chamber | 2015

Wind Quintet No 2

Details

Year: 2015

Duration: 13'

Instrumentation: fl (alfl, picc) /ob (ob d’amore)/cl (E flat cl, bcl)/ hn/bsn

Program Notes

Wind Quintet No 2               John Buckley

Since composing my first wind quintet forty years ago, I have always had the ambition to create a second work for this fascinating combination of instruments. My first wind quintet was performed and broadcast on many occasions in Ireland and abroad and issued in a commercial recording.

The new Wind Quintet No 2 is approximately twelve minutes in duration and seeks to fully exploit the medium, with extensive use of doubling instruments including alto flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, E flat clarinet and oboe d’amore in addition to the standard flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon.

While the overall title of the new work is simply Wind Quintet No 2, the four movements have individual titles as follows:

  1. Dance with Fanfares
  2. Arias and Refrains
  3. Figures in a Landscape
  4. Epilogue: Like Stars in the Wintry Sky

The number of Wind Quintets by Irish composers is relatively small (the Contemporary Music Centre lists only eleven). With the presence of the vibrant ensemble Cassiopeia Winds in the musical landscape, this fascinating and underdeveloped compositional genre can develop and flourish through performances and commissions.

John Buckley