The World of Music; 8; The Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet

The following program is from NET, the National Educational Television Network. Welcome to the world of music. My name is Morton Gould. The English musicologist Anthony Baines once wrote, The Woodwind is a small cluster of musicians, in whom the greatest virtuosity in the Symphony Orchestra is concentrated. One of America's great orchestras, the Philadelphia, has just such a cluster of virtuosos. And in 1955 of these artists, organized the Philadelphia Woodwind quintet. Since then, the ensemble has concitized around the world, gloriously achieving the goal, which prompted them to get together in the first place. That of a quaintly music lovers with the enchanting,

but rarely heard, masterworks of the win literature. All of its members occupied the first chair of their respective instruments in the Philadelphia Orchestra. And it is their individual and collective musicianship that prompted one New York critic to proclaim this quintet, the finest chamber group of its kind. Now, here to introduce the players, and to tell you something about the music they've chosen, is Saul Schoenbach, formerly Frasestowness of both the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Woodwind quintet. And since his retirement from the performing ensemble in 1957, executive director of the supplement music school in Philadelphia. Thank you, Mr. Gould. Now let me introduce the members of the quintet. First, our flutist, Murray Panets. Then, Anthony Jullotti, clarinetist. Of course, bass and Jones, French hornist. Bernard Garfield, my worthy successor on the bass soon,

and finally, John Delancey Obel. As for the music, I think you'll find that one of the most fascinating aspects of wind ensemble music is its amazing diversity of sound. There's none of the homogenous texture that marks string quartet music, for instance, but rather a one-risk splashing together of five separate, totally distinct, instrumental timbers, each with its own character, its own personality, and largely because of this, wind ensemble music developed much later than string music as a concert phenomenon. The string section was born in the concert days of the 16th century when complex pot writing was all the rage, and when the external tone colors of a piece were quite secondary to its internal polyphonic structure. Wind instruments just weren't used in concert then. They were saved for more practical purposes,

calling hounds to hunt, say, or sounding the alarm. It wasn't until the 18th century when the emphasis began to shift from polyphony to pure melody that composers began turning to wind instruments to broaden their tonal palette to add new timbers and colors to their concert music. Even as a painter might use bright colors to enhance the flowing lines of a canvas. One of the 18th century masters who most effectively tapped the hidden potential of the wind ensemble in concert form was Franz Joseph Heiden. In addition to assigning feature roles to wind instruments in his symphonies, Heiden wrote 66-divertamente that is suites of instrumental pieces containing anywhere from four to ten short movements. Now, some of these were for strings alone, but others were for mixed groups of strings and wins,

and some actually dared call for winds without strings. Among these were six felled partitas, which Heiden wrote in the 1780s for the military band of Prince Esterhazi, scored entirely for wind instruments, and designed specifically for outdoor performance, most likely in the Prince's lavish gardens. We're going to play the second movement of the felled partita or divertamento in B-flat major. And you'll note that nearly a hundred years later, he was made off with the tune again for his famous variations on a theme of Heiden. You'll see that they different off the

his RaymondSchool video. Yeah's that Younger. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll show you all the time, but I get to enjoy the tempo, John Delancey said just before this piece,

and others like it, bridged the gap between outdoor and indoor usage, so far as wind instruments were concerned. Before the 18th century, woodwinds and brasses were relegated almost entirely to the open air. Groups of stock fifers, which literally means pipers of the city, would plague corrals three times a day from the belfry of town churches. Wind players accompanied royal outings and entertained at fashionable picnics. Street musicians went about serenading for their suppers, and no self-respecting shepherd would be caught without his pipe or flute. But wind music within the hallowed confines of the concert hall? Why, it just wasn't done. Haydn and his contemporaries changed all that. The influence of the Mannheim School was also vitally important in giving wind music a new dignity in the 18th century.

You know, musical capitals of the world are quite different from political ones. And so it was in that period that the finest orchestra in Europe flourished not in Rome or Paris or Vienna or London, but in the little city of Mannheim in southwestern Germany. Their instrumental playing of every kind of winds included reached new heights of perfection. Mannheim was the symbol of peerless orchestral teamwork of breathtaking use of dynamic effects of virtuoso playing of the highest order. Mozart heard clarinet set Mannheim for the first time and promptly rescored several of his already completed symphonies to include them. Mannheim, in short, revolutionized the concept of concert performances in Europe, and it was Mannheim that made wind instruments respectable. We're going to play next the first movement of the wind quintet and e-flat by Francesco Antonio Rosetti, a Bohemian born composer whose name really

was Anton Restler, who fell very much under the Mannheim spell. Uncle. Oh You

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It was in the Paris of the early 19th century that would win ensemble music came fully into its own French conservatories were producing whole new generations of superb win performers and French craftsmen were making significant And often dramatic improvements in the instruments themselves not surprisingly French composers too were quick to capitalize on this unexpected bounty And more and more came to rely in their music on all the myriad varieties of color all the subtleties of nuance and phrasing that are the woodwinds Special stock and trade One of the first composers in France to write music of any real consequence for wins was Anton Riker Like Rossetti, Riker was born in Bohemia, but he settled in Paris as a young man and from 1818 until his death nearly 20 years later He was an honored professor at the Paris Conservatory

Riker was quite a character vigorous fun-loving full of ideas his love for novelty led him into all sorts of unusual instrumental explorations At one time he wrote this in the early 1800s that quarter-tone music would be a rewarding new departure Riker's friends included Haydn, Carabinian, Beethoven, and he had some pretty talented pupils too composers like list, burlios, Frank, and Guno. As I said, he was one of the first composers in France to write seriously for woodwinds And once he got going he couldn't seem to stop All in all, he turned out more than 400 pieces Many of them cheery delightfully attractive compositions, who's neglect these days is really a shame We will now play the finale from his win quintet and E-flat, Opus 88, No. 2 As the romantic era blossomed in the mid-19th century, the woodwinds were musical stepchildren no longer

Their open-air years were long behind them and even the mightiest composers were writing prolifically for concert winds As solo instruments, as mellitus within the orchestral texture and as consorts in the sort of chamber music we've been hearing today So what happened next? These outdoor instruments which had come indoors started going back outdoors again Figuratively speaking that is Obviously, the woodwinds were too firmly established in the concert hall at this point to be banished to the fields But with increasing regularity composers called upon the winds to create tonal moods of the wide open spaces The horns were sounded, the hunt is in olden days, the flutes evoked bird effects, the Obos played shepherd tombs It was almost as though the woodwinds now firmly established in the symphonic scene of things could finally look back without regrets to their outdoor ancestry Here's an example of the sort of music I mean, the lovely Obod, or morning serenade by the French composer Paul Duay

The flute and climate imitate cascades and rippling figures that make us think of waterfalls, or perhaps a bustling little stream Then the Obod calls out its rustic tomb, gentle and clear as the morning air itself And finally, the rushing waters of the opening measures reappear to round out this evocative musical nature study I'll see you latter! and

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life would be a mistake we are deeply grateful to the superb artist of the Philadelphia Woodwind and Quintet who helped us to understand and appreciate and best of all to enjoy the wonderful music that is the special legacy of the wind ensemble this is Martin Gould and and and and

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