Instrumentation: Wind Quintet
Duration: 7:35
Commission: Chamber Music Conference and
Composers’ Forum of the East, Inc. 2019
Premiere: August 10, 2019
Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum
of the East (Bennington)
Program Note:
Cinqchronie celebrates both the individuality and collaboration of the members of the wind quintet. The title, with its play on both “synchrony” and “chronos,’ as well as the French ‘cinq,’ meaning five, refers to the plethora of interactions among the five players. The piece opens with one instrument, starting with the horn, handing a single pitch to another, showcasing their individual voices. Gradually, all the musical elements combine to shine a sonic light on both their individual voices and their blending.
One of the characteristics of their interactions is the streaming of different lines, creating new rhythms by changing the rate of motion of different registral layers, amplified by changes in timbre. The harmonic underpinning shifts as well, underscored by the arc that shifts from the opening D to move up a fourth to the closing G. This inverts the traditional I-V motion, further subverting it by withholding a return to the opening anchor. However, the close clearly refers to the timbral gambit of the opening as it reverses it, with the instruments disappearing one by one until the lone sound of the flute fades into silence. Cinqchronie was commissioned by the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, Inc. for their participants to explore and premiere it on 8/10/2019. –JS