Wind
Octet (1972)
I.
Sostenuto
II.
Capriccio
III.
Invocation and Chorale
IV.
Allegro marciale 
beginning
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet in B flat, 2 Bassons, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones
First
performance: München 1972
Max Hecker / Eduard Brunner / Karl Kolbinger
/ Wolfgang Piesk / Willi Bauer / Karl Hertel / Michael Stern / Ernst Giehl
Duration: 22 Minutes
Publisher:
N. Simrock Hamburg-London (Boosey & Hawkes)
Score: ISMN M-2211-2077-9
Parts: ISMN M-2211-2076-2
Video: Works by Hummel on youtube
The
Wind Octet (1972), op. 47, was a commission for the for the Münchner
Bläseroktett - conceived as a programme pendant to Stravinsky's Octet
with the same instrumentation.
The 1st movement (Sostenuto)
is dominated by a pulsing fields of sound, on which in each case varied thematic
formulations are imposed, complementing these in full chromaticism.
In the
2nd movement (Capriccio) the various instrumental groups are set
against each other in a virtuoso manner - smelted together - fused into each other,
forming briefly beds of sound and chordal columns. Mirror and crab techniques
are prevalent.
Invocation and Chorale: an almost rhetorical
section leads into four lines of a chorale, each of which is interrupted in recitative
style. The original mood is resumed again and ends in a "stationary"
sound, fading away into nothing.
Allegro marciale: the predominant
elementary march rhythms - not completely free of parodistic elements - are caught
up in a field of tension between characteristic motions from the previous three
movements. A cadenza for trumpet leads into a condensed reprise.
Bertold Hummel