Making Space

Video coming soon!

Performed by Nu Quintet: Kim Lewis – Flute; Jillian Honn – Oboe; Kathryn Vetter – Clarinet; Blair Hamrick – Horn; Tylor Thomas – Bassoon

The wind quintet is sometimes criticized as an ensemble for chamber music, because of difficulty blending the instruments like strings. It is true that each instrument of the quintet is highly distinct. But is chamber music really all about “blending” – trading our individual identities for a homogenized collective sound? Certainly it’s not all about individualism either – we are making a collective musical experience, so we do have to work together. Perhaps there is another option, a way of making space for each other’s unique personalities in a way that supports each other instead of competing against each other.

This piece is a journey about learning to make space for one another, both musically and physically. The performers make their way through three different locations on stage, each associated with a set of musical characteristics and 􏰋gestures. They struggle against each other musically, often􏰋fighting for the same registral, motivic, and physical spaces. This eventually comes to a head as the performers converge on a single note, each desperately trying to be heard over one other, before they are all suddenly cast off the stage. Now physically separate, they must each find their own space. Each takes a small part of the three sound worlds on stage and makes it their own, taking up their musical space and allowing themselves to come back together in a way that still emphasizes each of their unique instrumental personalities. It is not a blend of timbres per se, but a blend of objective, perhaps more like putting interlocking puzzle pieces into place next to each other instead of mashing them together in a blender.