Sean William Calhoun | Composer and pianist

Pentachrome is a set of miniatures composed for the Tennessee Valley Woodwind Quintet. The woodwind quintet is potentially a very colorful ensemble, with five instruments each having a distinct timbre. But many woodwind quintets (Ligeti’s and Aho’s excluded) have a tendency to end up the same Woodwind Quintet Sound. And so I set out to avoid the Woodwind Quintet Sound, and bring out more of the coloristic variety of the ensemble. The first movement, Kaleidoscope, features flowing lines of thirds surrounding melodic lines. The second, Silhouette, begins the oboe and bassoon in canon, alternating with a slow melody (in perhaps a stylistic nod to Aho). The third, Palette Swap has a multiple instruments articulate melodic notes, but switch which instrument sustains each note. The fourth, Brushstrokes surrounds a melody with quasi-heterophonic lines over a slow progression in the bass instruments. The final movement, Sheen, fuses elements of the other movements.