Northern Spire

About Quintet No. 2 for Winds

Quintet No. 2 for Winds (2019) is a bit different from my first quintet, in that the four movements are not connected by a single motif that returns throughout the piece.  There are some call-backs and foreshadows here and there, to be sure, and there is certainly some connective tissue that brings these four movements together to form one piece, but each movement has its own “jumping off” point and its own distinct attitude.

The first movement is a kind of steady sonata form, utilizing a synthetic scale that I like to play with sometimes, one that can sometimes keep our ears guessing as to which of two notes is the designated tonal center.  The second movement is a Theme & Variations, with the “theme” being a chant-like melody that takes a bit of a bluesy turn.  The third movement is a fast and furious scherzo (though also in a sonata form) that begins with a rhythm I came up with while playing with my children... enjoyed by all three of them when they were very young, most especially the newest of the bunch.  The final movement is a calm sort of continuous variation, wherein the simple melody introduced at the beginning is continually repeated, but moves through several different scale-types and tonal centers, with the registration, instrumentation and accompaniment patterns also changing around it.  This brings a kind of contemplative “in the hammock at the end of a good summer day” vibe to end the piece.

​

Click the title page image above to view sample pages of each movement from the score.

​

You can hear sample clips of the beginnings of each movement below.  I hope to put up a sample from a live recording soon, but, in the meantime, this is a MIDI rendering created using Finale with GPO5 instrument samples.