wind quintet (2021)
duration: 14′
premiere: May 6, 2021
The Sylvan Winds: Svjetlana Kabalin, flute; Kathy Halvorson, oboe;
Nuno Antunes, clarinet; Gina Cuffari, bassoon; Zohar Schondorf, horn
program note
Pentalogue (2021) was commissioned by the Sylvan Winds with support from the New York State Council on the Arts*. It was written for wind quintet during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time also full of political turmoil, including Black Lives Matter’s heartbreaking ‘I can’t breathe’ protests. I was trying to write something with beauty and hope, but the five movements contain all my anxiety about breath. Maybe that’s why three dark musical quotes insinuated themselves into my subconscious so many times that I gave up trying to get rid of them.
The most prevalent quote is the opening phrase of the flute obbligato from the tenor aria Der Ewigkeit saphirnes Haus (The Sapphire House of Eternity), from Bach’s Cantata 198, a secular funeral cantata for a princess. There are fragments in each instrument’s parts.
My second quote is a quote of a quote. I was thinking of the doublebass solo in the 3rd movement of Mahler’s 1st Symphony, but Mahler was already quoting Frere Jacques in a minor key. Mahler was inspired by a woodcut called ‘Funeral March in the Manner of Callot’ (misattributed to Callot, actually by Moritz von Schwind, according to my printmaker husband). I love this print, with animals serving as pallbearers in a hunter’s funeral procession.
The last quote is the children’s song and round Three Blind Mice. Maybe my unconscious mind combined it with the Mahler because of the animals in the woodcut, though the mice don’t fare well in the song.
*Commissioned by the Sylvan Winds with funding from the Individual Artist Program, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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