Woodwind Quintet No. 1 in c minor "Legend" (2025)

A woodwind quintet had long been on the list of pieces I wanted to write. This piece was written in the fall and winter of 2025. The first two movements were performed in the New England Conservatory's Williams Hall in April of 2026. The third and fourth movements were performed in September in Jordan Hall. Due to very limited rehearsal time, I conducted the piece. When writing the first movement, I decided to do something different than my usual sonata-form first movement. While the movement does resemble a sonata form, it also takes inspiration from the fugue. The second movement is a calm slow movement. The form is an ABCBA' form in which the returning sections come back in different keys. The third movement is an elegant but lively scherzo. My composition teacher told me that the piece reminded him of Renaissance music. While I had not intended the movement to sound that way, my teacher's observation made of think of stories set in the Middle Ages. This is one of the reasons why I named the quintet "Legend." The fourth movement was originally conceived as an orchestral piece, although I never wrote an orchestral version. I realized that the key and the bassoon solo made it a perfect concluding movement for this woodwind quintet. This movement is playfully mischievous and cartoonishly frightful. A particular image I had in mind while composing this movement was a dragon puppet I had seen on television as a child. This image influenced the "creeping" bassoon melody. This movement is in rondo form. Performers: Zeya Ma, flute Evan Work, oboe Taein Yi, clarinet Flynn Ewer, horn Coco Keer Zhou, bassoon Julia Crosson, conductor Thank you to NEC for providing me with this recording and for granting me permission to upload it to Youtube.