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Favourite Works for Wind Ensemble

4K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  20centrfuge 
#1 ·
I'm interested in chamber music written for wind ensemble but I don't really know anything in this genre besides Beethoven's Octet. So I am curious to know what people's favourite pieces in this area are.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Most of the chamber music for wind I have usually features strings and/or piano - exceptions that immediately spring to mind are Mozart's 'Gran Partita' Serenade op. K361. (actually has a part for double bass but can be replaced by double bassoon, but as it's for 13 players perhaps the ensemble's too large for it to be a chamber work?), Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet from the 1920s, Hindemith's Wind Septet from the 1940s and Michael Tippett's Sonata for Four Horns from the 1950s.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Most of the chamber music for wind I have usually features strings and/or piano
Yeah, it seems strange to me that the string quartet is such a popular form but that there isn't really any analogous all-wind ensemble type with quite the same foot in the standard repertoire.

EDIT: Found this piece by Ligeti which is really enjoyable and for all winds:

 
#7 ·
Ligeti is a given must! Also like Bo Nilsson's, Jean Francaix wrote two delightful ones, Luciano Berios wrote two, Sam Barbers 'Summer Music' is fun. You should look for Frigyes Hidas two, only heard the second in concert, but also fun music, Hidas is way to unknown outside Hungary anywayoncerto is a Blast!.. Holst's op 14 is not bad at all, Schönberg's op 26 rocks, I could name a few Swedish one's that I've heard in concert that have been very entertaining!

/ptr
 
#8 ·
Irving Fine ~ Woodwind Quintet / Symphonies of wind instruments (large ensemble)
Elliot Carter ~ Eight Etudes and a Fantasy, for woodwind quartet
Stravinsky ~ Octet
Darius Milhaud ~ Woodwind Quintet

...add a piano and other riches open up.
Mozart ~Quintet for piano and Winds in Eb, K.452
Beethoven ~ Septet
Poulenc ~ Sextuor
Stravinsky Septet

and many more.....
 
#11 · (Edited)
Another vote for Janacek´s "Mladi" and Nielsen´s Wind Quintet, as well as his "Serenata in Vano"

Elliott Carter: Woodwind Quintet (early period)

Jean Francaix´s Octet is delightful but includes strings

Wind orchestras supporting solo instruments in concerto works had a certain popularity around 1920-50, such as in Berg´s Chamber Concerto, Kurt Weill´s Violin Concerto, Janacek´s great Capriccio for piano & ensemble (), Jaroslav Jezek´s Violin Concerto, and Skalkottas´3rd Piano Concerto.
 
G
#13 ·
Been listening to a lot of wind ensemble music lately since I'm writing my first band piece. For composers these days, wind band music is where the money's at. Been diggin Michael Colgrass, especially Winds of Nagual.

 
#16 ·
Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments is one of my all time favorites. It is dedicated to the memory of Debussy: a one movement work that lasts about 9 minutes.

These are Stravinsky's own words about the piece

"It is devoid of all the elements which infallibly appeal to the ordinary listener and to which he is accustomed. . . . It is an austere ritual which is unfolded in terms of short litanies between different groups of homogeneous instruments." The work is not in any way a symphony; rather, Stravinsky has gone to the literal root meaning of "symphony" as "a sounding together."

Edit: In hindsight, this is probably a larger instrumentation than you are after, BUT, Stravinsky did write an octet for:

flute, clarinet in B♭ and A, two bassoons, trumpet in C, trumpet in A, tenor trombone, and bass trombone
 
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