The Bassoon Quintet (German: Fagott-Quintett) is a
quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
by
Graham Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse (born 2 November 1962) is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, '' Three Pieces for Solo Cello'' and '' Variations for Cello Solo'' for his own instrument, and str ...
, composed in 2003 for
bassoon and
string quartet.
History
In 2003 Graham Waterhouse composed the Bassoon Quintet, to be premiered as part of a composer's portrait concert at the
Gasteig. On 5 October 2003 music for one to ten players, conducted by
Yaron Traub, was performed in the Kleiner Konzertsaal, including the
Piccolo Quintet. The bassoon part was first played by
Lyndon Watts, the principal bassoonist of the
Münchner Philharmoniker, in the presence of bassoonist
William Waterhouse, the composer's father. The string quartet was formed by Odette Couch, Kirsty Hilton,
Isabel Charisius and the composer.
A revised version was performed in Munich on 14 March 2011 in a chamber concert of the Bavarian Tonkünstlerverband (Musical Artists' Association). The soloist was again Watts, who also premiered
Bernd Redmann's ''Migrant'' for bassoon and string quartet, and played the first of four quartets for a woodwind instrument and string trio, called "Finnische Quartette", by
Jörg Duda
Jörg Duda (born 17 December 1968) is a German composer of classical music.
Life and career
Born in Munich, Duda was influenced by the church music of Scheyern Abbey. He took lessons in organ and improvisation with Harald Feller, in theory an ...
. The string players, besides the composer, were members of the
Münchner Philharmoniker, Clément Courtin, Namiko Fuse and
Konstantin Sellheim.
The quintet is in preparation to be published by
Zimmermann
Zimmermann is a German occupational surname for a carpenter. The modern German terms for the occupation of carpenter are Zimmerer, Tischler, or Schreiner, but Zimmermann is still used.
''Zimmer'' in German means room or archaically a chamber wi ...
. It was played in concerts to celebrate the composer's 50th birthday in Munich
and
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
.
Music
As in the composer's
Cello Concerto of 1995, the movements of the quintet are in the sequence "slow introduction – fast – slow – fast". The introduction presents characteristic intervals and the wide
tessitura
In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...
of the bassoon, a range of three and a half octaves. The predominantly "lyrical mood" of the work is also established. "Restless energy" defines the Allegro movement, a four note
motif is passed between cello and bassoon, later dominating figuration in the bassoon part.
The slow movement is reminiscent of the composer’s memories of liturgical
Armenian chant, which he experienced in 1996 in the Armenian district of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
around Easter. He describes: "The meandering line, continually curling back on itself and the resonance of the massive, ancient stone walls are mirrored in the writing, as continually shifting, changing fragments of the "chant" are passed between the instruments".
The last movement has a more symphonic aspect. The strings and the bassoon play
arpeggio motifs in open intervals such as
fifths and
major sixth
In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
s. The intervals of the introduction reappear on high harmonics in the strings. A virtuoso coda concludes the work.
References
External links
Graham Waterhousewebsite
Hochschule Luzern
Münchner Philharmoniker 2011
Münchner Philharmoniker 2011
Münchner Philharmoniker 2011
{{Authority control
Chamber music by Graham Waterhouse
Compositions for bassoon
Contemporary classical compositions
2003 compositions