Bay of Dew

On Village Music: « The village in the title of this wind quintet is an imaginary one, with no specific ethnographic locale. Also imaginary is a song called The Man in a Sycamore Tree, which concludes this set of interconnected fanfares and dances. »

On Music for Winds and Harp: Music for Winds and Harp was written for the Arcadian Winds and Jocelyn Chang, Dilling harp. It represents an assimilation of various elements from Western art music, rock, jazz, and African drumming. »

On Woodwind Quintet No. 2: Cleary’s work was commissioned for Arcadian Winds. The first movement is in slow tempo and consists of contrapuntal lines nearly always layered over held notes.The second movement utlitzes a sonata-derived format and is in fast tempo. The third movement loosely describes and arch-like structure and is in slow tempo. The fourth movement makes use of varied tempi and is laid out in a complex scheme somewhat akin to a rondo format. The slow coda recapitulates some older melodic materials and reestablishes the summetric structure of thefirst movement.

On Bay of Dew: Mr. Underhill writes: « I have long been fascinated by the unusual and poetic place-names for lunar features which were created by Johannes Ricciocoli in the mid-17th century. One such name is the ‘Bay of Dew’ or ‘Sinus Roris’ in Latin. The ‘Bay of Dew’ is in fact a crater on the moon, but in my mind, I envisaged a tiny body of water that had been entirely created by the gradual collection of precious drops of dew as they formulated in the early morning hours. »

On Ballet: Ballet for Woodwind Quintet is a composition that conjures up images of dance. However, it is composed more in the spirit of dance for the players themselves and the manner in which their parts interact. »

SCOTT WHEELER

1. Village Music

2. First Arcadian Fanfare

3. Cliff Dance

4. Second Arcadian Fanfare

5. Midnight Pastorale

6. Cliff Dance Reprise and Final Arcadian
7. Fanfare

8. The Man in a Sycamore Tree

MICHALE LEESE

9. Music for Winds and Harp

DAVID CLEARY

10. Woodwind Quintet No. 2 (« Berkshire Pilgrimage »)