Quintet "Five Objects Darkly"

My Quintet Five Objects Darkly was completed in December 1996. The title is taken from the painter Giogio Morandi, referring to the bottles and cans which constituted the, for him at least, inspiring subject matter of several of his most remarkable paintings which I saw in Holland earlier in the year. The ‘five dark objects’ of my composition refer not to the five movements which constitute the work, nor to the five instruments for which it is scored, but more specifically to a short extract from the piano part, at the opening of Moussorgsky’s song Ennui in his song cycle, Sunless. I made five versions of this fragment, by reharmonising and rearranging the notes and the resulting ‘objects’ appear in one form or another in each of the movements - all five in the first, which is a free passacaglia also called ‘Ennui’. It is followed by a scherzando ‘Sonatine’ entirely made up of duets (only the piano right hand being called for) of various combinations of instruments. The third movement has no title, but is sustained in character. The fourth movement is marked Notturno/Burlesque and is based on an ostinato of three notes; the burlesque refers to the very quick and surprising juxtapositions of style. This leads directly to a Dance Finale, one of a number of Schubert dance-inspired movements I have written, involving repetitions of whole dances and ending here with a return to the passacaglia bass of the first movement.

This composition, commissioned by Mrs Betty Freeman for the 10th anniversary of the Southwest Chamber Music Society is dedicated to Milton Babbitt in the year of his 80th birthday.

Alexander Goehr