Wind Music for Woodwind Sextet

From the Publisher

Composer and master teacher Leslie Bassett (1923-2016) had a long, distinguished career as a professor at the University of Michigan, where he taught from 1952 until 1992. Bassett won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for music for his Variations for Orchestra. Wind Music, for flute, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, horn, and bassoon, was commissioned in 1976 by the University of Wisconsin and received its premiere the same year. The score opens with a quotation from King Lear: “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!” The aptness of this epigraph is immediately apparent, as the first movement begins forcefully with two groups of stacked chords separated by tessitura. This opening sets the tone for the entire work, in which the six voices are frequently combined into pairs or trios of instruments playing off one another. This method of textural and timbral exploration recurs throughout the five short movements. The second, third, and fourth movements are more conversational in tone, with more opportunities for individual voices to emerge from the texture amid complex rhythmic gestures and contrasting tempos. The final movement opens with grand upward-sweeping gestures passed through each instrument in the ensemble before settling into a quick dance theme.

Performance duration (approx): 12'

Item Details

Instrumentation

• Part 1: Flute
• Part 2: Oboe
• Part 3: Bb Clarinet
• Part 4: Alto Saxophone
• Part 5: French Horn
• Part 6: Bassoon