# Chamber Music featuring a wind instrument(s)



## Olias

I was hoping to start a discussion on great chamber music literature that features one or more wind instruments. Some of my favorites are listed below and I'd love to hear other members comment on their favorites.

Mozart
Clarinet Quintet
Clarinet Trio
Horn Quintet
Flute Quartet #1

Beethoven
Wind Sextet Op 71

Brahms
Horn Trio
Clarinet Quintet

Dvorak
Serenade for Winds


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## Aksel

Stravinsky
Octet for winds
Ragtime for eleven players


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## jurianbai

this morning I listen to Saint Saens Bassoon sonata. op 168.

Once I saw the performance of Schumann's wind chamber piece, something like in the forest theme, a bird singing etc. can anyone tell me again what this piece are?

Also a Brahms trio featuring one of the wind instrument, I can't remember the piece name. But it is dark and intrique music. if this one can be reveal to me also.


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## Conor71

I really like Bach's Flute Sonatas.


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## Olias

Conor71 said:


> I really like Bach's Flute Sonatas.


Yes, what are the BWV numbers on those? I have wanted to explore some Baroque flute music for a while.


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## Head_case

These are my favourites too - I especially used to enjoy playing the A minor Partita and the B minor Sonata. No matter how brilliant the recordings on CD/LP, nothing beats the experience of listening to a real flute played live (with reasonable competence that is). 

BWV 1030-1035 (I-VI), 1020 (VII and 1013 (Partita) are what you are looking for.


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## emiellucifuge

How about Reicha's fascinating wind quintets?


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## Head_case

Someone else might offer some thoughts perhaps on the Reicha. 

I only like solo flute music, or flute with harpsichord; flute with string quartet when it comes to woodwind music. Very narrow eh. I find the flute offers more tone colour than other wind instruments. Maybe that's just my bias from being an intermediate flute player years ago.


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## emiellucifuge

Head_case said:


> I find the flute offers more tone colour than other wind instruments. Maybe that's just my bias from being an intermediate flute player years ago.


Wow, i always thought the flute had a rather bland tone compared to the clarinet and especially the oboe!

It sounds very whispery and hollow. The oboe and other reed instruments have such a full tone, especially that slight nasal and pinched quality of the oboe makes it very expressive.


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## Head_case

The flute whispery and hollow? Crikes - have you been listening to me play recently? 

No no no - the flute possesses a variety of tone colours - it can sound 'recorder like' or 'yellow toned'; or develop a deep 'purple tone' which is rich and velvety. Unfortunately there is a lot of cruddy music out there which seems to exploit the wispy 'fractured' potentialities of the flute. It is not helped by Jethro Tull's awful rendition of a Bach piece which is very wispy, emaciated in tone and rather thin. One Japanese composer has written a piece which involves 'exploding' fricatives from the lips into the flute - a little like 'spitting'. It sounds awful to my ears. It is almost as offensive as the spitting from Greg Patillo's beatboxing which I really like lol. 

My favourite is the alto flute - ultra rich and mellow. Now if you get a chance to hear some of the amazing alto flute works out there, you'll be mesmerised - richer than clarinet and oboe multipled by 4 and put in a quartet, quintet, or whatever. Reedy clarinets are just that....reedy! Wouldn't you prefer a harmonica instead - that has lots more reeds - about 47 more reeds in a 12 hole harmonica! 

A nasal and pinched quality of the oboe isn't exactly a full tone btw - it's way too limited in flexibility and agility for my taste. I hate them all lol (just ignore me ) except the flute of course.


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## Webernite

I especially like Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds Op. 16.

Brahms wrote three works for clarinet other than the one you mentioned: two clarinet sonatas and a clarinet trio. Then there's Schoenberg's Wind Quintet Op. 26, which Stravinsky is supposed to have thought highly of. And I'm fond of the very chromatic Trio Sonata from Bach's _Musical Offering_:


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## elgar's ghost

Both Poulenc and Hindemith wrote plenty of (often short-ish) sonatas and other chamber works for various wind instruments and are worth investigating.


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## ShyBelgian

the wind sonatas by Saint-Saëns are litte French pearls also (oboe, clarinet and bassoon), the wind quintets by Reicha, Danzi and Cambini are very fun to play (although not really Big Classical Art hehe), and the wind quintet by Briccialdi is one virtuoso piece!

I prefer the wind quintet over a string quartet or quintet any time, because I prefer the different colours the various instruments give instead of four (or five) string instruments... but that's me being biased for being a wind player


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## jurianbai

Martinu's Madrigal for Oboe, Clarinet and Basson to add in.


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## Aramis

I remember when I first heard (and saw the title of) Mozart's serenade for winds.

I didn't know that "winds" stand for ensamble of wind instruments and thought that "for winds" is romantic dedication for the god of the winds or something and the music is ment to describe this element.


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## Saturnus

The chamber music of Poulenc is really good. Very late in his career he dedicated his powers to composing sonatas for flute, oboe & clarinet, sextet for a wind quintet & a piano and a trio for oboe, basson & piano. Those pieces are the best wind chamber music I've heard, they're very expressive and full of ideas, crafted carefully by the experienced Poulenc. 

More pieces I have to mention as my favorites are the Saint-Saens bassoon sonata and septet for trumpet and strings, Mozart's oboe quartet & F-major divertimento K.213, Schumann's oboe romanzas, Dvorak's Serenade and Bird's double wind quintet and last but not least, Mozart's Gran Partita


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## Olias

Saturnus said:


> More pieces I have to mention as my favorites are the Saint-Saens bassoon sonata and septet for trumpet and strings, Mozart's oboe quartet, Schumann's oboe romanzas, Dvorak's Serenade and Bird's double wind quintet.


I love that Dvorak Serenade. Its a hugely underplayed work.


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## Saturnus

True, it's probably due to the fact that there isn't a repertoire to support classical wind bands, so you have to put a band together specially to play this.


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## Webernite

The Strauss Serenade Op. 7 is also wonderful.


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## jurianbai

Mozart's Trio Kegelstatt K498 in Eb.

Whenever my ears exhausted by the bow, the winds are my remedy.


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## Olias

jurianbai said:


> Mozart's Trio Kegelstatt K498 in Eb.


One of my favorites too. The viola and clarinet together is such a mellow and creamy sounding combination.


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## Art Rock

Brahms' clarinet quintet really stands out for me.


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## Chris

This thread is far too serious. It's time for What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor


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## starthrower

Poulenc-Chamber Music/Ensemble Wein-Berlin DG Records
William Alwyn-Chamber Music Naxos
Messiaen-Quartet For The End Of Time/Bartok-Contrasts on Delos
Hindemith-Kammermusik- 2-CD re-issue on EMI


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## Head_case

Anyone like Edgar Meyer's Quintet for String Quartet & Kontrabass?


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## Aramis

Head_case said:


> Anyone like Edgar Meyer's Quintet for String Quartet & Kontrabass?


Where's the wind instrument here?


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## Sebastien Melmoth

Walter *Rabl*'s *Clarinet Quartet* is wonderful.


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## Head_case

Head_case said:


> Anyone like Edgar Meyer's Quintet for String Quartet & Kontrabass?


There isn't any. I was just wondering if it was all just hot air :lol:


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## Sebastien Melmoth

There is a *Meyer Quintet*; and it's pretty good too:
http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Meyer-Q...1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1292287811&sr=1-1-spell


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## toucan

Among bands set up to perform the substantial repertoire for Wind chamber music, there is the legendary Vienna Octet (Wiener Oktett):










(Where the Spoht Octet is just about as good as the Schubert.) and:










And the handy Consortium Classicum, led by the esteemable Dieter Klocker:










The highlights, among the Mozart Serenades, are of course K375, K388, and the Grand Serenade K361.
Mentionable here are the following curiosities. Klemperer (who also did K388, paired with a Concerto, NBarenboim at the piano):










Furtwangler:










And the ever-surprising Pierre Boulez:










I am not sure the Vienna Octet or the Consortium Classicum have ever recorded (or performed) XXth century wind music. That is disappointing, as there was a true-blue revival of the genre in that century, perhaps spurred on by the neo-classical interest in pre-romantic genres - one further explored by the post-world-war II avant-garde.


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## Delicious Manager

I am surprised no-one has yet mentioned the doyen of wind quintets - the one by Carl Nielsen. One evening in the autumn of 1921, the Danish pianist Christian Christiansen received a telephone call in the middle of rehearsing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for Winds (K 297b) with four members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. Christiansen could not have dreamed that this interruption would result in the composition of a major work for wind quintet and two of the finest wind concertos of the twentieth century. The caller was Carl Nielsen, who, hearing that they were playing music by his favourite composer, asked if he might attend the rehearsal. Nielsen planned to follow his Quintet by writing a concerto for each member of the ensemble but had only managed to complete the flute and clarinet concertos by the time of his death in 1931. Both the Quintet (particularly in the last movement variations) and the concertos were intended not only to exploit the character of the instruments but also to reflect the personalities of the people playing them.

Nielsen himself provided a short description of the quintet. _"The composer has here attempted to present the characteristics of the various instruments. Now they seem to interrupt one another and now they sound alone. The theme for these variations is the tune of one of Carl Nielsen's spiritual songs, which is here made the basis of a number of variations, now gay and grotesque, now elegiac and solemn, ending with the theme itself, simply and gently expressed."_


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## LordBlackudder

Solo Woodwind


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## toucan

If wind is the subject...


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## altiste

*mixed wind and string chamber music*

There's the Prokofiev Quintet for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Double Bass. Surprisingly it seems that no composer picked up this combination of instruments and wrote for it for the rest of the 20th Century.

I wrote a Quintet for this combination in 2003, now recorded on a CD titled _Diversions - Autour du hautbois_ (music for or with the oboe).


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## Pieck

Brahms Clarinet Trio and Sonatas


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## norman bates

alec wilder - the wonderful octets 





and the quintets





John Harbison - the quintet





Irving Fine - Partita


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## LordBlackudder

i was just listening to this:






and:

http://bluedragon.moy.su/Isekinonazo.mp3


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## LordBlackudder




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## starthrower

Anybody have this one? 
http://www.amazon.com/Berg-Chamber-...=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315238978&sr=1-2


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## jalex

No mention of 



?


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## Stasou

Nielsen Quintet, Ligeti Quintet, and Prokofiev Flute Sonata! And Brahms Clarinet Sonatas.


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## waldvogel

Nobody's mentioned Stravinsky's _L'histoire du soldat_? It might be the first neoclassical piece ever written. It's scored for a narrator and seven instruments - violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet (usually done on a trumpet), trombone, and percussion.

Composed in 1918, it's kind of symbolic of the devastation of WWI. That's a skeleton of an orchestra - something like what would have returned unscathed from the Western Front after the war. The music is quirky, folkish, devilish - Satan enters into the narrative - and very touching in parts.


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## jalex

waldvogel said:


> Nobody's mentioned Stravinsky's _L'histoire du soldat_? It might be the first neoclassical piece ever written.
> 
> Composed in 1918.


Prok 1 was written in 1916-1917. The Stravinsky's a great piece though.


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## Delicious Manager

waldvogel said:


> Nobody's mentioned Stravinsky's _L'histoire du soldat_? It might be the first neoclassical piece ever written. It's scored for a narrator and seven instruments - violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet (usually done on a trumpet), trombone, and percussion.


No self-respecting professional would EVER play _L'histoire du soldat_ on a trumpet. The cornet is a different instrument with its own unique timbre. A trumpet simply will NOT do for this music.


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## Klavierspieler

Schumann:

Drei Romanzen for oboe and piano.
Märchenerzählungen for clarinet, viola and piano.
Drei Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano.


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## pjang23

No mention of Schubert's Octet?


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## violadude

What about Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire


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## starthrower

...or Schoenberg's Serenade, Op. 24 

I bet Henry Threadgill listened to this stuff.


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## Mary

I am taking a graduate music class on "Wind Chamber Music." This week the assignment is to make a list of the 20 most important works by asking others. So what do YOU feel are the MOST IMPORTANT, MOST REPRESENTATIVE, AND MOST PERFORMED chamber works that include at least one instrument?


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## Head_case

Errr...perhaps start a thread with your title, so that it doesn't get buried and lost in this one?

Currently listening to Takematsu's flute and guitar:


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## Vaneyes

*Bartok*: Contrasts (clarinet, violin, piano)


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## Novelette

Especially Beethoven's Sextet and Octet.


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## PetrB

[Of course, the Mozart quintet for piano and winds, K. 452, and the Clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms, Brahms trio for violin, horn and piano.]

Poulenc ~ Sextuor / The sonatas for Flute and Piano / Clarinet and Piano / Oboe and Piano

Stravinsky ~ Octet / Septet, for clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, violin, viola, and cello

Milhaud ~ Wind Quintet, Op.443 (it is another, not Le Cheminee de Roi Renee) / 
Petite Symphonie No.5 "Dixtuor à vents"





Morton Feldman ~ Crippled Symmetry, flutes (C alternating Bass flute, one player -- piano, celesta, glockenspiel and vibraphone)





Elliott Carter ~ Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (wind quartet) / Sonata for Flute, Oboe, 'Cello and Harpsichord

de Falla ~ Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and 'Cello
Bartok ~ Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin and Piano

ADD:
Irving Fine's very 'fine' quintet is already mentioned, but I forgot the

Samuel Barber ~ woodwind quintet, 'Summer Music'


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## arpeggio

I do not know where to begin. Most of these works have already been mentioned. My picks would include:

Beethoven: _Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn in E flat major, Op. 16_
Barber: _Summer Music_
Schoenberg: _Quintet for Winds_
Hindemith: _Kleine Kammermusik for Wind Quintet, Op. 24 no 2_
Nielson: _Quintet for Winds_

Rossini also composed some excellent chamber music for winds, including: _Andante, Theme and Variations for Flute, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon in F major_

Generally speaking Reicha and Danzi composed many fine chamber works for winds.

I would also second all of the works in PetrB's list. (Note: I am unfamiliar with the Feldman.)

Elliott Carter: One of his last works was _Nine to Five_ employs five wind players with the flute doubling piccolo, Bb clarinet doubling on Eb clarinet, oboe doubling on english horn, bassoon doubling on contrabassoon and the horn doubling on horn. I have not heard this work yet. It was premiered in 2010.

Along with his _ Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (wind quartet)_ Carter composed a _Woodwind Quintet_ in the late forties. Unfortunately I have never heard this work.

I have always been partial to the Villa-Lobos _Bachianas brasileiras no 6 for Flute and Bassoon_

There have been many great works for winds and strings that have been mentioned above, including:

Schubert: _Octet_
Hindemith: _Octet_


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## pjang23

Weber: Clarinet Quintet






Reger: Clarinet Quintet


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## PetrB

waldvogel said:


> Nobody's mentioned Stravinsky's _L'histoire du soldat_? It might be the first neoclassical piece ever written. It's scored for a narrator and seven instruments - violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet (usually done on a trumpet), trombone, and percussion.
> 
> Composed in 1918, it's kind of symbolic of the devastation of WWI. That's a skeleton of an orchestra - something like what would have returned unscathed from the Western Front after the war. The music is quirky, folkish, devilish - Satan enters into the narrative - and very touching in parts.


Stravinsky's first neoclassical piece was "Pulcinella" - considered the first of 'neoclassical' piece, premiered 1920, another ballet for Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russes.

'L'histoire' was a child of some necessity, pulling together a handful of musicians needing and available to work, greatly determined its orchestration.


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## PetrB

Mary said:


> I am taking a graduate music class on "Wind Chamber Music." This week the assignment is to make a list of the 20 most important works by asking others. So what do YOU feel are the MOST IMPORTANT, MOST REPRESENTATIVE, AND MOST PERFORMED chamber works that include at least one instrument?


The topic, reduced by its specification, would derail this OP, as well as get a bit lost. Of course, there would be a majority of Sonatas, and the likes of the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets, perhaps the Berio Sequenza for Clarinet and prepared tape, etc.


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## Hausmusik

Mozart, Clarinet Quintet, Gran Partita
Brahms, Clarinet Trio, Clarinet Quintet, Horn Trio
Beethoven, Horn Sonata
Schubert, Octet
Ravel, Intro & Allegro
Spohr, Octet
Schumann, Andante & Variations for 2 Pianos, 2 Cellos & Horn


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## Mahlerian

Webern's Quartet for Clarinet, Saxophone, Piano, and Violin Op. 22


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## PetrB

adding,

Villa Lobos ~ Quintette in forma de chôros


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## moody

This is an old thread that's been dug up. Mind you when you look at some of the new ones it is no wonder !
Here's a charming piece--
Ponchielli : Quartet In B Flat Major For Winds With Piano Accompaniment. You can tell that he's an opera composer because it sounds just like a sream of arias....wonderful !


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## Head_case

Cross-post - this one too:


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