del Águila - Wind Quintet No. 2

1. Back in Time
2. In Heaven
3. Under the Earth
4. Far Away
Wind Quintet No.2 was written in 1994 and premiered the same year in Santa Barbara by the Bach Camerata. In 1995 it was awarded a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for excellence in chamber music composition.
The four movements are held together by an undisclosed program that takes the listener through four different places (movements), as would the four acts of a play. Back in Time has a primitive, ritualistic character. The flute, accompanied by chant, plays a simple, modal theme. The simple musical structure and melodic material are retained as the movement progresses. In Heaven is a delicate, relaxed and stylized Caribbean dance. Extensive new performance techniques and effects are used in this movement which at times makes the quintet sound like a delicate, distant percussion ensemble. Under the Earth is perhaps the composer’s darkest and most realistic musical depiction of death. Miguel del Aguila: “The wind quintet is often thought of as an ensemble dominated by the high instruments with limited bass support. I tried to prove the contrary with this movement which explores not only the expressive depth of the wind ensemble but the extreme low registers of some of the instruments”
Far Away takes us to a busy scene in the Middle East. Several Arabic maqams and oboe solos, combined with a digeridoo sounding ostinato bass are used to create an exotic fabric in which the entire ensemble is challenged to the limits of their technical abilities before bringing the piece to a fiery conclusion.