ENS.1998.4 | 4′
Wind Quartet / Brass Quintet
Study for Woodwind Quartet
Study for Brass Quintet
Two Studies
The Two Studies were composed in late 1998 and early 1999 for my freshman orchestration class at the Manhattan School of Music, where they were first performed.
In the brief Study for Woodwind Quartet, each instrument plays the same melody at different speeds and in a different style. The “solemn” bassoon begins in quarter notes, followed by the “dark” clarinet in triplets, an “a piacere” oboe in eighth notes, and finally a “light” flute in quintuplets. All end together in unison in this miniature tribute to Conlon Nancarrow.
The Study for Brass Quintet after L’homme armé deconstructs the famous “armed man” tune of the late middle ages. Initially each instrument plays the song at different speeds, speeding up each iteration until the tune is compressed into running eighth notes. When this process is finished the song once again expands, this time into vertical harmonies derived from the melody, before compressing itself again. The study ends in a blaze of brass subsiding into a gentle F major chord.