Exploration

Conner Wittman’s wind quintet is a piece which explores various harmonic techniques within classical forms.

The first movement opens within a sonata form, developing on a joyful melody which is expanded upon through the wide variety of colors achievable within a wind quintet. The second movement takes a more lyrical approach, often using the horn’s somber potential as melody. Due to the slower pace of this movement, it uses a much simpler ternary form, and expresses harmonic complexity through extended harmonies and substitutions, rather than through modulations. The third movement aims to be humorous in tone through its syncopations, articulations, and more abrupt style changes. To facilitate the contrasting sections with an added sense of familiarity, this movement is in rounded binary form. The last movement strays further from tonal traditions, and basses its harmonies on the pentatonic scale. The form of this movement also takes a unique form, with the large scale form being a rondo (with an added intro), while the individual sections within the rondo also consist of rondos just a few bars long.

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