Wind Quintet
Composer: Sir Malcolm Arnold
Catalogue no: QT61 | ISMN 979-0-708-01561-1
An important and significant work, written in London in 1942 and now published for the first time: 60 years later! The first movement is tuneful and full of those surprises Malcolm loves to introduce in his music. There are no shortage of jazz inspired ideas, coloured always by that Arnold 'edge'. The second movement is a fiendish scherzo - full of amazing cross rhythms and of immense energy. The final movement is a March and the most emotionally charged. Clearly very strongly anti-war - severe and angry dissonances, mocking fanfares, angular and brutal melodic and rhythmic shapes. 'The edition is well prepared and a highly-recommended addition to the quintet repertoire.'Music Teacher Magazine, January 2004
WIND QUINTET
1 Allegro
2 Presto
3 Alla marcia
If you have already read lames Brown's article in DRN62 on the
disappearance and discovery of this quintet you can skip the rest
of this paragraph. This piece is not the famous Three Shanties
quintet, but a forerunner written in 1942, performed only once
or twice - including a broadcast by a quintet from the London
Philharmonic Orchestra - and promptly lost. That story alone
makes a good yarn, but the unearthing of the work some 60 years
later - amongst the property of the late Stephen Walters - adds
another remarkable convolution to the story. Paul Harris, at the express wish of the composer, has made a
diligent job of preparing the work for publication and the score
and parts are very readable in this Queen's Temple publication.
Paul Harris and his quintet gave the first performance, for 60
years, last November. I decided to assemble some friends, music stands, bottles of wine,
etc to give the piece a test drive.
Double Reed Magazine
What a line-up for which this work was written: the quintet
which included Stephen Waters on the the principal wind players in the LPO at the time at which Arnold
himself was principal trumpet in the same orchestra. It is thought found it many years later, after Stephen's death, amongst his
possessions. The three movements are in typical Arnold style with several reminiscences of the shortly to follow Sea shanties.
AWT
If you have already read James Brown's article in DRN62 on the
disappearance and discovery of this quintet you can skip the rest
of this paragraph. This piece is not the famous Three Shanties
quintet, but a forerunner written in 1942, performed only once
or twice - including a broadcast by a quintet from the London
Philharmonic Orchestra - and promptly lost. That story alone
makes a good yarn, but the unearthing of the work some 60 years
later - amongst the property of the late Stephen Walters - adds
another remarkable convolution to the story.
Paul Harris, at the express wish of the composer, has made a
diligent job of preparing the work for publication and the score
and parts are very readable in this Queen's Temple publication.
Paul Harris and his quintet gave the first performance, for 60
years, last November.
I decided to assemble some friends, music stands, bottles of wine,
etc to give the piece a test drive. We managed a
respectable sight-reading of the three movements
(Allegro, Presto, Alla marcia), rather better I suspect than
we would have were the piece as demanding as its
famous successor. The opening Allegro is in divided
common time and, after a cautious initial attempt
(and a first glass of wine), we soon realised that it
needed to move more swiftly. It is predictably
tuneful and colourful, and full of those Arnoldian
unexpected twists and turns.
The Presto is a driving scherzo one-in-a-bar - so everyone moved
nearer to the edge of their seats! But it was the peculiarity
of counting in this movement (here the wine was less helpful)
rather than any sheer technical difficulty which threatened our
ensemble. The quirky Alla marcia reminded more than one of us
of Hindemith but, as Paul Harris comments in the score, this
movement "is the most emotionally charged. Clearly very anti-
war - severe and angry dissonances, mocking fanfares, angular
and brutal melodic and rhythmic shapes." Sir Malcolm would no
doubt have been disturbed that we were playing it through on the
first day of the Iraq War!
To its credit, we were all quite happy to continue rehearsing the
Quintet for the whole evening. The character of the outer
movements needed establishing, the scherzo phrasing had to be
mastered and the wine finished.
As we reflected on the music later, we agreed that everyone's
instrument was well catered for and that the piece had not
deserved its early demise from the repertoire.
The publication is a sure success.
At the conclusion of the evening, glasses were raised finally for a
toast to Sir Malcolm.
Clive Fairbairn - Double Reed news
Excerpt from 2 Presto
Queen's Temple Publications was founded in 1995 to make available interesting and useful wind chamber music, such as Sir Malcolm Arnold's important Wind Quintet Op. 2. Since then we have expanded to include music for piano, guitar, choral music and much more. Our publications have been selected by the major examination boards worldwide.
Our composers also include James Rae, Iain Hamilton, Charles Camilleri, Paul Harris, Timothy Bowers and many others. So if you are looking for fresh and unusual new repertoire, look no further!
Queen's Temple Publications is based in the United Kingdom.
Tel: 01280 813144
Email: pauldavidharris@icloud.com