Recording (and revision) of Three Scenes for Woodwind Quintet

Back in spring of 2023, I completed a woodwind quintet. It was quickly programmed on a chamber music series in Salt Lake City (Intermezzo Chamber Music) and given its premiere on July 31 of 2023. Players were excellent. As with many first performances, it’s rocky in spots, but still worth a listen.

I also realized that there were a few small modifications I needed to make in the first movement and I’ve done that.

If you visit the page for the piece here you can listen to the first performance. You can also see a video of the revision while following the score.

At some point there will be a full video of the first performance as well, although I’m not sure when that will be. I’ll post a link whenever that time comes.

A New Woodwind Quintet

Just a few weeks ago I finished my first woodwind quintet. While I’ve always been partial to winds, I’ve never ventured into this form before. It was great fun to write and I hope it comes out that way to the listener.

It’s essentially a celebration of counterpoint. One of my earliest musical memories is one of voices moving with and against one another. It was Bach, of course. My music has never sounded remotely like Bach, but the influence has always been there at an increasingly deep level. The three scenes are as follows:

• 1 - Rounds. This is the most obviously contrapuntal movement, joyfully throwing out canons of all sorts. There are inversions, retrogrades

• 2 - Perpetuum Mobile - Does what it says on the tin, with a single quick line moving among instruments with just a few bits of homophony here and there

• 3 - Chorale - a more contemplative movement that focuses precisely on voicing of chords. It’s externally homophonic, but is based internally on the counterpoint that’s the core of the entire piece.

  You can listen to it right here