Octet for wind instruments (op. 47, 1972)
Movement titles
I. Sostenuto, II. Capriccio, III. Invocation und Choral, IV. Allegro marciale
Instrumentation
Flute, clarinet in B flat, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones
Duration: 22 minutes
Premiere
1972,
Munich
Max Hecker | Eduard Brunner | Karl Kolbinger | Wolfgang Piesk | Willi Bauer | Karl Hertel | Michael Stern | Ernst Giehl
Autograph
Title: Octet for wind instruments (1972) - Length: 46 pages - Date: I. 2 Sept. 72 / II. 16 Sept. 72 / III. 3 Nov. 72 / IV. 21 Nov. 72 - Location: unknown
Publisher
N. Simrock Hamburg-London (Boosey & Hawkes) Partitur: ISMN M-2211-2077-9 | Stimmen: ISMN M-2211-2076-2
The Octet for Winds (1972) op. 47 was commissioned by the Munich Wind Octet - intended as a programme counterpart to Stravinsky's Octet, with which it shares its instrumentation.
The 1st movement(Sostenuto) is characterised by throbbing sound surfaces to which varied thematic formulations are superimposed as fully chromatic additions.
In the 2nd movement.(Capriccio), the various instrumental groups are played off against each other in a virtuoso manner - fused together - to form short carpets of sound and chordal columns. Reflections and crab-like passages are predominant.
Invocation and chorale: A quasi-rhetorical section leads into 4 chorale lines, each of which is interrupted by a recitative. The opening mood is taken up again and ends in a "standing" sound that sinks into nothingness.
Allegro marciale: The predominant elementary march rhythm - not entirely free of satirising elements - is caught up in the tension between the movement types of the three preceding movements, a trumpet cadenza leads to a brief recapitulation.
Bertold Hummel