Vignette: Three
Vinaigrettes (2003) — 7’30”
Woodwind Quintet
Premiere
April 19, 2004
The Juilliard School, New York
Mvt. I
Mvt. II
Vignette: Three Vinaigrettes was written in July of 2003, just after
I had finished a string of serious (and I might say long-winded) pieces.
Having played in a woodwind quintet for several years, I am all too familiar
with not only the “standards”-- from Reicha to Harbison, but I have an
understanding of the special strengths and weakness of the ensemble. In most
cases I ignored both of these facts while writing this piece.
The resulting three short movements tend to address (or exploit) the most
difficult aspects of playing in this particular group, intonation and unity
of articulation . The first movement is basically a highly embellished
unison throughout, and the crisp and pungent second movement is full of
tricky unison articulations, among other things. The players can finally
relax a little in the third movement, where, as throughout the piece, I
explore (as well as I am able) my favorite thing about playing in and
writing for this group- the five radically different sounds and
personalities of the five radically different instruments involved.
The titles are of course referring to the ever trendy and ever more popular
salad dressings. Whatever connection between the music and dressings any
listener would like to make is up to him or her. I won’t say anything more,
but the one ingredient in all three is vinegar. I needed to write something
light- or should I say “lite”…
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