Wind Quintet

In classical music, the wind quintet is a chamber music ensemble consisting of a flute, an oboe, a clarinet, a horn and a bassoon or other instrument from each family: piccolo, English horn, Bass Clarinet, contrabassoon.

The wind quintet also means the musical work dedicated to this type of formation. Its specific repertoire was developed from three quintets concertante, Op. 4, Giuseppe Cambini in 1802, followed by the twenty-five quintets by Anton Reicha , but extends to the present day with three short pieces by Jacques Ibert, The Chimney of King Rene by Darius Milhaud and the Six Bagatelles by György Ligeti.

In the early XIX^th century, the development of wind instrument making, particularly with the Boehm system for timber, allows for better homogeneity of the range of each instrument and a better balance of sound between them. Of the many possible combinations, the combination of a flute, an oboe from a clarinet, a horn and one bassoon has always seemed the best for a multitude of mergers, color, mix and harmony .

Origin

From the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, there are wind ensembles formed consort recorders or shawms, sometimes mixed with copper as sackbuts or trumpets. Their repertoire consists almost exclusively through changes in vocal polyphonic music or dance music.

If the period baroque gives pride to string together big or small, duets, trios, quartets and beyond, flutes, oboes, bassoons and horns, flower Lully, Philidor, Boismortier, Telemann, Zelenka, Handel. These sets are almost always accompanied by a basso continuo (bassoon, cello and harpsichord, organ), but the wind instruments compete with the strings in con molti strumenti Concerti by Vivaldi, integrating emerging clarinet, or Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 3 horns, 2 oboes, a bassoon, violino piccolo for a first, a trumpet, a flute, an oboe, a violin solo for the second.

The numerous wind ensembles of the late XVIII^th century have little flutes. The composers of the Classical period, Haydn, Mozart , Beethoven and Schubert prefer the balance of sextets (2 oboes and 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons) and octets formed of eight instruments. Mozart and Beethoven quintets composed for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, but the beginnings of the wind quintet appearing with the Quintet of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger for 2 oboes, clarinet, horn and bassoon, or the Quintet in E flat major for Antonio Rosetti, for flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet and bassoon.

The first wind quintets

In the early XIX^th century, in 1802, are edited Three quintets concertante, op. 4, Giuseppe Cambini, first known original scores for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. After thirty-six quintets by Anton Reicha (whose op. 88, 91, 99 and 100 between 1811 and 1824) and nine quintets Franz Danzi (op. 56, 67 and 68, 3 per album, between 1821 and 1824). The three quintets op. 81 Georges Onslow (1851), and Quintet in G minor flutist Paul Taffanel are still in the repertory.

The Golden

In the XX^th century, almost all major composers, operating excellence and the brilliance of woodwind, write to the formation of chamber music:

• Three short pieces, 1890-1962)
• Songs tradewinds op.125, Florent Schmitt (1958)
• Quintet, Jean Francaix (1912-1997)
• Quintet, Elliott Carter (b. 1908)
• Quintet, Hans Werner Henze (born 1926)
• Two Pieces, Guy Ropartz 1864-1955)
• 2 quintets, Henk Badings (1907-1987)
• The Chimney of King Rene, Op. 205 and Op Entertainment. 299b, Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
• Quintet op. 43, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
• Quintet op. 26, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
• More picturesque Paul Pierne (1874-1952)
• Variations on a theme Corsican, Henri Tomasi (1901-1971)
• Kleine Kammermusik Op. 24 No. 2, Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
• Summer Music Op. 31 Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
• Three Shanties, Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
• Six Bagatelles, György Ligeti (1923-2006)
• Antiche danze del Ungherese 17. secolo, and Lavotianna, Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000)
• One night in Brocéliande for wind quintet, Pierre Angot (1958 -)

In these pieces, plus works by contemporary composers, less known, but whose works show the vitality of modern wind quintets: Hermann Ambrosius, Nikolai Berezovsky, Arthur Egidi, Kühnel Emil Emile Pessard Karl Rorich, James Waterson Pierre Angot or Carli Zöller.

(Source: wikipedia.org - copyright authors - article under GFDL)

"Chamber music"

The Saxophone Quartet Wind quintet