Woodwind Quartet - Martin Gaskell

This quartet, for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, was conceived and born among the redwood forests of Santa Cruz County in California back in the l970s, although, as is often the case with my compositions, completion and revision continued over many years. When I arrive on the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus in 1975 I was overwhelmed by the clear skies and year-round sunshine of Santa Cruz, and the exceptional beauty of the UCSC campus. In my first year at UCSC I heard an outstanding student woodwind quartet play. I was entranced by the sounds of the woodwind instruments and my ears were opened for the first time to the possibilities of the woodwind quartet. Out in the redwoods on campus on Sunday afternoons I began sketching this quartet. Unlike the strings I was more accustomed to, woodwind instruments were such open-air instruments. In those days the flute was also “the” Santa Cruz sound. You would always be hearing flutes being played downtown.
Here is a brief synopsis of the four movements of the quartet:
1. The opening movement of the quartet (Allegro Giucoso) reflects my joyful arrival in what seemed like an academic paradise among the redwoods of California in a land of perpetual spring where every day from on campus I could look across the calm Pacific Ocean. As well as the joy of the natural beauty the other great joy while I was writing the quartet was getting to know my future wife, Barbara. Much of the composition of the quartet was done at her parents’ house in the forests of lower Bonny Doon or out under the campus redwoods with Barbara a few feet away working on her geology homework. In mid-1977, a UCSC student woodwind quartet kindly read through this first movement.
2. The slow movement (Adagio/Andante) was inspired by the many evening walks Barbara and I took, especially the longer walks down the steep sides of the UCSC campus and into the San Lorenzo valley. To picture the sort of scene that inspired the slow movement, imagine that you are either alone or with a very special friend in a forest at the bottom of a steep valley by the banks of a slow-moving river as dusk is falling and a cold gray ocean fog is coming up the valley. I later used the main theme of the movement as part of my “Fantasia for Harp and Strings”, which you can find elsewhere on KZbin.
3. The third movement is a fast scherzo (Poco Vivace). It was written on Sunday afternoons in the redwoods up behind Crown College at UCSC. There is a dance-like middle section followed by a repeat of the opening part of the movement. Little did I know back then that modern technology would permit me to listen to the quartet on headphones while running through the redwoods while training for half marathons!
4. The finale (Largamente Maestoso) is a chorale-like theme followed by five variations. I can best summarize the movement by saying that it is an expression of thanksgiving to God for all the blessings I have received in Santa Cruz. After the fifth and most lively variation has died down, the movement ends with a restatement of the theme to bring the quartet to a close.
This video combines two performances of my woodwind quartet almost 20 years apart: a November 2000 concert in the Westbrook Recital Hall of the Glenn Korff School of Music of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln by “The Quasar Quartet”, and a February 2020 house concert by another quartet (they didn't give themselves a name) in Santa Cruz, California. Many thanks to Jennifer Englin, Bethany Murphy, Gretchen Anderson and David Baker for the 2000 performance and to Jack Dunn for recording the concert. Then a big thank you to Carol Wilhelmy, Debbie Simpson, Eve Eden and Neil Fairbairn for the 2020 performance, (which thy managed to do just before COVID was to shut down live performances!) Because the versions used in the two performances were slightly different, I’ve made a hybrid version with my current favorites of the different versions. (Sometimes one thinks one has improved a work of art only to come back later and prefer one's original ideas!)
The landscape paintings and photographs are by my wife, Barbara Gaskell. You can purchase Barbara’s art work, including some of the paintings included in this video, on Fine Art America (see fineartamerica....