Knussen, Oliver: Three Little Fantasies. WndQntet (score)
sheet music
Three Little Fantasies for wind quintet is a 7-minute flash of Oliver Knussen's mercurial wit and concision. Written in 1970 when the composer was in his early twenties, the raw material for this trim three-movement work was partly drawn from Knussen's Hums and Songs of Winnie-the-Pooh. In the first the various instruments introduce themselves by way of spirited cadenzas, the second features overlapping, ruminative pulses that pass through different timbres and colours, the finale describes a frantic game of imitation and canon.