Amazonian dreams - Jean-François Verdier

When the musicians of the Klarthe Quintet came to ask me to compose a piece for them, I had a premonition that the experience would lead to something rather original...

Maybe the personalities of these five musicians played a big part : I immediately felt the need to use their vitality and their inventivity in a non-conventional way. The idea of making them play percussion instruments too established itself in order to create bonds and particular sound fields individual to these strange 'Rêves' of a deep green forest, ever-changing but repetitive, magic and dangerous. It was also a way to overcome the acoustic limits of the wind quintet, by using a style of writing which produced an original sound for this 'classical' chamber music scoring. The remarkable 'Summermusic' by Barber which, having often played the wind quintet repertoire, I knew very well, did not serve as a model, but as an invitation.

I thank the musicians of the Klarthe Quintet for having taken on the challenge so readily, and to have accepted to produce the sounds of the djembé, claves and rattles that made this journey towards new acoustic perspectives possible.

Jean-François Verdier

Duration : 9'00

for flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn, bassoon (playing also djembé, claves and rattles)

Score and parts