"Hardwood is a very significant contribution to the woodwind quintet repertoire. ...  I think that the piece is as difficult and as appealing as John Harbison's Woodwind Quintet."

Lansing McLoskey

Hardwood

for wind quintet

Commissioned by the International Joint Wind Quintet Project [the International Clarinet Association, International Double Reed Society, National Flute Association, and International Horn Society]

view score (pdf for perusal/evaluation only)

Recording: Live concert performance by Madera Wind Quintet, 5/18/12. Jorge Cruz, Jr., bassoon; Katrina Elsnick, flute; Natalie Lorch, oboe; Angela Winter, horn; Rachel Yoder, clarinet.

About the piece

The title of the piece is a multi-layered pun: First (and perhaps painfully obvious) is that it’s a demanding work for woodwinds.

But more significantly, the title refers to the fact that the piece was composed while at the MacDowell Colony, located in the woods of New Hampshire.  I was surrounded by hardwood trees for five weeks in the autumn, during the entire change from deep, lush greens through the explosion of colors of "peak" and then the dropping of the leaves.  How could one not be moved and inspired by this transformation and the magnificent yellows, oranges, red, purples, and beautiful browns and earth-tones?

However, the piece is in no way a literal tone-poem attempting to portray this in sound, but rather a personal, musical refraction of my weeks in the hardwoods.

About the International Joint Wind Quintet Project (JWQP)

The Joint Wind Quintet Project was created by the ICA (International Clarinet Association), the IDRS (International Double Reed Society), the IHS (International Horn Society), and the NFA (National Flute Association) to foster the creation of new works for the chamber combination which unites the four organizations: the wind quintet. After over a year of negotiations to bring the four organizations into agreement on the shape and form of this joint endeavor, the JWQP sponsored an international competition to commission a new wind quintet, premiered at the 2012 conventions of the four societies.

About the Composer

Lansing McLoskey has been described as "a major talent and a deep thinker with a great ear" by the American Composers Orchestra, "an engaging, gifted composer writing smart, compelling and fascinating music" by Gramophone Magazine, and "a distinctive voice in American music.”  His music has an emotional intensity that appeals to academic and amateur alike, defying traditional stylistic pigeonholes. 

McLoskey’s music has been performed in fourteen countries on six continents, and has won more than two dozen national and international awards, most recently the prestigious Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the International Music Prize^TM for Excellence in Composition 2011, and the 2011 Chatham Baroque Prize. In 2009 he became the only composer in the 45 year history of the ISU New Music Festival to win both the chamber music and orchestral composition awards; both blind-juried national competitions with two independent panels. Recent performances include premieres in Italy, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Miami, and Melbourne, Australia, and performances at twelve music festivals in the past year alone, including at the 2011 soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where he was the Composer-in-Residence.

Associate Professor at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music, his music is released on Albany, Wergo Schallplatten, Capstone, Tantara, and Beauport Classics.
www.lansingmcloskey.com

The score and parts are available from

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PRESS ABOUT LANSING McLOSKEY:

"Lansing McLoskey composes music that is keenly heard and deeply felt.  His music reveals a remarkable sensitivity…resulting in works of emotional intensity. Avoiding any allegiance to “isms” he has developed a unique musical voice which is clear and distinctive."

– The American Academy of Arts and Letters, on the occasion of his receiving the 2011 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship.

"Lansing McLoskey’s is a distinctive voice in present day American music."

– Carlos María Solare.  The Journal of the American Viola Society, Spring 2009.

 "McLoskey’s musical interests have evolved from being a guitarist and songwriter for punk rock bands to a composer of some of the most unique and engaging contemporary music written today."    

      – Benjamin Faris. The Saxophone Symposium, May 2009.

                             – Elizabeth Perten, Boston Musical Intelligencer, April 7, 2009.

 "...this is real music, with rhythm, melody, harmony, and form, which the listener can perceive, but definitely is from the twentieth century."
                                                               –Thomas Hall, Journal of the American Viola Society

“…A major talent...and a deep thinker with a great ear.”
                                                                                              –American Composers Orchestra press release

"But in fact the heart of the concert, for this listener, was an unassuming piece [Rosetta stone] by Lansing D. McLoskey - the "D" standing perhaps for dense, demanding, daring."