DCCCIII. LIGETI, György: Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet

DCCCIII. LIGETI, György (1923-2006)

Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet (1968)
1. Molto sostenuto e calmo
2. Prestissimo minaccioso e burlesco
3. Lento
4. Prestissimo leggiero e virtuoso
5. Presto staccatissimo e leggiero
6. Presto staccatissimo e leggiero
7. Vivo, energico
8. Allegro con delicatezza
9. Sostenuto, stridente
10. Presto bizzarro e rubato, so schnell wie möglich
Eclectic Wind Quintet
Sho Kato, flute, alto flute, piccolo
Jillian Honn, oboe, English horn
Sammy Lesnick, clarinet
Ivy Ringel, bassoon
Thea Humphries, French horn
(15:08)

"The number of movements comes from the idea of composing a small, virtuosic concertino piece for each of the five instruments, with five ensemble pieces for balance. The 'concerto movements' are No. 2 for clarinet, No. 4 for flute, No. 6 for oboe, No. 8 for horn, and No. 10 for bassoon.

The ninth piece is an ensemble piece for piccolo, oboe and clarinet only. These three instruments can produce a piercing sound in the upper register. I deliberately exploited the effect of combination tones (specifically, difference tones): pitches not actually fingered by the instrumentalists, but which result from them playing together. I heard this acoustic phenomenon as a young child, when several girls with high voices would sing Hungarian folk songs in less than perfect unison: it was an amazing sound, much lower than the one being sung or played, and one does not know from which direction it is coming.

In writing the five short concertino pieces, I used all my knowledge of the five wind instruments, checking the most adventurous passages in rehearsal to see if they could be played ... this is not virtuosity for its own sake, but rather in the service of formal plans of tension and extreme expression. My goal was to create something new ... from within the very sound of the music." -- GL