Ecosystems was commissioned by the Dorian Wind Quintet in 2017. It is a three movement work for wind quintet which is my attempt to musically describe the various ecosystems that humankind lives in: The Coral Reef, representing the sea, The Rain Forest, representing the land, and Northern Lights, representing the air. I relate the sounds of wind quintet to the sounds of nature, so with regard to the orchestration, it felt natural to score this particular piece for wind quintet. The purpose of the piece - the message I hope to convey - is to illustrate the beauty and wonder of these three worlds as a cautionary comment about how mankind’s polluting interaction with these ecosystems threatens our existence on this planet.
The Coral Reef is a flowing, legato movement where the melodies have long phrases and are treated contrapuntally. It is written in a sonata-allegro form with a very tonal harmonic language. The exposition (Allegro) is the opening section where the first and second themes are stated and then taken through many harmonic shifts, modulations, and counterpoint, finally ending in an explosion of tutti staccato eight-note triplets, followed by a fermata. The development begins with a low Eb in the bassoon and introduces new material, while re-visiting previous themes from the exposition eventually morphing into a short Largo section which introduces more new material. Lastly, the the recapitulation is similar to the exposition, with its flowing use of the first and second themes and the harmonic language combined with the contrapuntal devices.
Northern Lights starts with a lonely French horn statement, which in my mind, represents the vastness of the sky. In the following Adagio section, various woodwinds play rapidly repeated notes which symbolize blinking stars. The piece is composed in a ternary form and conceptually is meant to capture the mystical and colorful dancing light show of the Aurora Borealis.
The scherzo, dancelike third movement, The Rain Forest, is intended as a celebration to the mystery, complexity, and beauty of the forests, trees, birds, wildlife, and and all the living things contained in that ecosystem. It’s an Allegro, in which the flute states the first theme, accompanied by rhythmic punctuations by the other instruments. This movement is contrapuntal at times, but does not use canon as a device, like the first movement (The Coral Reef) does. Also, like the first movement, it is composed in a quasi-sonata allegro form, with a slow moving center, and a recapitulation similar to the exposition.
Rental sets are supplied as digital pdf files, via download immediately upon purchase. You get to keep the printed score and parts and may mark them up at will (although you'll have to pay a fee for any future performances, and you may not transfer the files or printed score/parts to another party.)
The license includes:
- 2 printed copies (please contact us if you need to print more)
- 1 performance (please contact us for additional performance discounted rates)
- Submission of all performance dates and locations prior to the performance is required. Instructions are included after purchase
- Sharing or transferring digital files to another party is not allowed
