Nine Bagatelles for Woodwind Quartet  (Boston, MA 1991)

This is one of the earliest pieces I wrote that I actually liked and still think is relatively successful.  Originally written for the quartet of a friend of a friend, it has never been performed.  The mood is puckish and playful in a way I don't usually write.  I had been listening to a lot of Stravinsky at the time and that shows in the textures.  The piece as a whole is quite dissonant and from this distance, I can see what techniques I was experimenting with at the time.  I just entered it into Sibelius and so it really isn't edited for performance yet, but if you have a WWQ4 that wants it I will be glad to finish it up. 

For the curious, a 'bagatelle' is French for 'trifle' and is [to quote the Harvard Dictionary of Music] "A short, unpretentious piece, often for piano, and often presented in sets with contrasting tempos and moods."  And that is certainly how I meant this suite of movements. 

Here are three of the movements:

• Movement 3 -- MP3
• Movement 3 -- Sibelius Score 
• Movement 3 -- General MIDI file

• Movment 5 -- MP3
• Movement 5 -- Sibelius Score 
• Movement 5 -- General MIDI file

• Movement 8 -- MP3
• Movement 8 -- Sibelius Score 
• Movement 8 -- General MIDI file

Questions or comments? Let me know....