Emblems
ensemble
Flute/Piccolo, Oboe, B-flat Clarinet, F Horn, Bassoon
duration
Four continuous movements, approx. 10 minutes
Recording
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Score
Notes
Emblems for woodwind quintet was written for the Trade Winds Ensemble’s 2016 teaching residency in Tanzania. The group wanted a piece that could be easily deconstructed and reassembled to illustrate how five distinct instruments can sing together. To achieve this, I wrote four contrasting yet seamlessly flowing movements, exhibiting characteristics that range from meditative to celebratory.
‘Invocation’ highlights the soloistic voices of the wind quintet within gestures that involve the entire ensemble. The single-note opening grows into a texture of chords that expand out of and collapse back into unisons, sneakily handed off and passed around the ensemble. As the texture builds, the snappy “emblem” motif, first heard in the opening measure, emerges in its most whole form. The movement ends with a call-and-response passage between the horn and woodwinds, highlighting the difference between winds and brass, a key challenge in writing for a wind quintet. ‘Surfaces’ transforms the “emblem” motive from short snaps into ostinati consisting of running scales and arpeggios that snowball, culminating in a triumphant release— notably the only ensemble unison in the piece. In ‘Sentinels,’ the “emblem” motive now flickers in regular intervals as sustained notes create a bell-tone constellation. This backdrop gently encircles the soothing calls of a ghostly clarinet solo. Finally, in ‘Champions,’ the “emblem” motive is lengthened into a sustained, lyrical melody doubled on the oboe and horn in octaves. An ostinato in the flute, clarinet, and bassoon supports an ascending melody in the oboe and horn until the five instruments eventually converge and close in an exuberant statement of the “emblem” motive in unison.
Commissioned by
Trade Winds Ensemble
World Premiere
Performed by Trade Winds Ensemble on June 9, 2016 at the Umoja Youth Centre in Arusha, Tanzania.
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