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Wind quintet

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 XIXth 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 .


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 XVIIIth 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 XIXth 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 XXth 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: - copyright authors - article under GFDL)

Creation date : 02/04/2009 22:48
Last update : 05/04/2009 11:01
Category : - Chamber music
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Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (* February 3, 1736, Klosterneuburg - † 7 March 1809, Vienna) is an Austrian musician and composer.


Antonio Rosetti

Antonio Rosetti (or Franz Anton Rösler until 1773) was a Czech composer and contrabassist, born in 1750 in Litoměřice (Bohemia) and died June 30, 1792 at Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg).


Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685 to July 28, 1750),  in french Jean-Sebastien Bach is a German composer, harpsichordist, organist and  violinist.
Composer of the Baroque era which symbolizes and personifies the peak, he had a major influence in the sustainable development of western music by great composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, recognized him as an unsurpassed master.
He was a musician who mastered the manufacture of instruments as well as instrumental technique, composition as improvisation, pedagogy and the management of a musical institution.
Known during his lifetime as an organist and improviser, his music was quickly forgotten, however, after his death, as unfashionable and his work, with few exceptions, written and never published, partly dispersed and lost, was rediscovered and studied by romantics.


Baroque period

The baroque period covers a large period in the history of music. It extends from the early XVIIth century at about the middle of the XVIIIth century, more or less uniform across the countries considered. As a necessarily schematic, aesthetics and inspiration baroque follow those of the Renaissance and above those of classicism.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer, born 16 or 17 December 1770 in Bonn (at the time of the Holy Roman Empire and died March 26, 1827 in Vienna (Austria).


Classical period

The Music "Classic" includes music written by agreement between the death of Johann Sebastian Bach is 1750 and the beginning of the Romantic period or the 1820s. By extension, called  "classical music" all european art music, music from the Renaissance to contemporary music. It is therefore necessary to separate the classical music, composers whose headlights are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and classical music opposed to popular music in the West or elsewhere (referred to "Indian classical music," for example).

Franz Danzi

Franz Danzi, born June 15, 1763 in Schwetzingen and died April 13, 1826 in Karlsruhe, was a composer and conductor German Italian origin.


The harmony

In its broadest sense, the word harmony means traditionally one of the four elements of music - the others being the rhythm, the melody and timbre.
Harmony is the deliberate use of frequencies simultaneously, with a view to provide relief and depth to the song or instrumental performance : she represents the aspect vertical music, while the melody is the aspect horizontal.

Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a composer, conductor and violist German, born in Hanau (near Frankfurt am Main) 16 November 1895 in Frankfurt and died December 28, 1963.


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart, better known by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born in Salzburg, a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, January 27, 1756 - died in Vienna Dec. 5, 1791) is generally considered one of the largest Composers of European classical music.
Although he died at thirty-five years, it leaves an important work (626 work are listed in the Catalog KV) which embraces all genres of his time.
According to the testimony of his contemporaries was the piano to the violin as a virtuoso.


Antoine Reicha

Anthony (Joseph) Reicha, also known as Antonín or Anton Reicha, born in Prague February 25, 1770 and died in Paris May 28, 1836, was a Czech composer, theorist and professor of music.