Bassoon Quartet: Bassoon: Instrumental Album

Bassoon Quartet A-Chesterton Flowers was written for a concert given by the 'Equal Opportunities Bassoon Quartet' as part of a Flower Festival at the Oxfordshire village of Chesterton in June 1985. Hollyhocks Deadly Nightshade French Marigolds and Canterbury Bells. Duration: 10 minutes. 4 Bassoons (No contra required).

Basson Et Piano - Lm010-French composer and student of Darius Milhaud Pierre-Max Dubois was born on March 1st 1930. Although not as popular as his teacher he was well respected and continued the musical ideas of Les Six of which Milhaud was of course a member into the second half of the twentieth century even winning the Prix de Rome in 1955. Dubois' music is a lot like that of Milhauds light hearted harmonic melodical and texturally unusual. Many of his works are for woodwind especially saxophone such as his Quartet for Saxophone in F which was premiered in 1962 or the Pieces characteristiques en forme de suite for alto saxophone and piano accompaniment.

Andalag # 4 - Duo for 2 Bassoons (2011). Part of Andalag - Suite in 11 movements. Programme note Some years ago I was asked by the Faroese ensemble Aldubáran to compose duets for the woodwinds within the ensemble. The idea then came to me to write a Suite with the name “Andalag” in 11 movements. 8 movements are duets and are approximately 4 min. long. 2 movements are quartets and are approximately 8 min. long and 1 movement is an octet which is approximately 16 min. long. In other words the Suite will last approximately 60 min.   The (octet) instrumentation is 2 flutes 2 clarinets 2 horns and 2 bassoons. The Faroese word “andalag” has a multilayerd meaning. The first half of the word is “anda” and means to breath or spirit and the second half of the word “lag” means melodi mood or layer. I use two small ideas in this Suite. One idea is in a sort of major mood and the other in a sort of minor mood. Sunleif Rasmussen May 2013