Alfred Reed

Double Wind Quintet

Uniting the traditional Woodwind and Brass Quintets into a ten-player performing group, the Alfred Reed has treated the various combinations possible with this instrumentation in various ways: sometimes just a Woodwind Quintet, then the Brass Quintet, and frequently both groups together as a kind of "mini-wind ensemble." Then, too, the many smaller combinations of two to nine players are exploited to the fullest in order to create continual, and sometimes surprising, changes of instrumental color.

The work is in three movements: I. INTRADA, subtitled 'Fanfares, Entrances and Marches," II. PAVANE, subtitled "Elegy" as Reed's in memoriam for dear personal friend Walter Beeler, to whom the work is dedicated, III. TOCCATA, set in rock and rag rhythms.