Woodwind Quintets of 1920 (with Prelude)

Beginning the Roaring 20s Quintets – Small Steps

A Prelude

The original 2016 thesis behind our exploration of woodwind quintets of the 1920s was that there was an uncharacteristically sudden interest in writing for this ensemble during this decade. The quality of five of those compositions by Nielsen, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Villa-Lobos and Ibert was so good that they have been steadily performed, even a century later. Two other works by Lorenzo Fernandez and Blumer, were much harder to find for much of the twentieth century, but are now being revived. Further, these quintets, each in a different style, showed how modern composers could use their quintets to explore new ideas, and possibly explore new expressive techniques. There was a historical turning point here that made the woodwind quintet much more popular to composers, performers and audiences.

In almost a decade since I researched that original thesis, I discovered I was wrong about the number of compositions for woodwind quintet written at that decade. I thought I could find a few more that I missed back then, but when I did a systematic search for more quintet composers of the 1920s I found 49 additional composers who wrote 51 woodwind quintets during those years! So instead of disproving my original idea, each new piece helps confirm the original thesis.

So I decided to further investigate each of these 49 composers. A few are almost invisible on the internet and, indeed, to music history: for them there isn’t much new information to be found. Others have loads of biographical and other information available and I learned a lot about them, their compositions, and sometimes got an idea about their contribution in the melange of musical styles in the 1920s and in musical history since then. Each new work I listened to gave a newer perspective of the competing musical styles of the early 20^th century.

So, here is that research in eleven blog posts. Unlike the original series, I’ve found works for each year from 1920 onwards. But there was a steady accelerando in the number of works being composed throughout the decade. With the addition of works from 1920 and 1921, the project has grown to eleven years.

Another interesting thing I found is that almost every composer on the list soon had their career affected by the Great Depression and by the build-up to and the actual events of World War II. Many Jewish and progressive artists were banned and forced to leave Germany before World War II or face arrest. At least one of our 1920s quintet composers was killed in the Nazi concentration camps, others survived. Some served in the armed forces (on either side). One had his home destroyed by a German bombing raid and another lost much of his work in an allied bomb strike. Others spent considerable time and effort to leave their homes, most often moving to Paris, southern France, Portugal, England, or Switzerland to escape the Nazis (with varying success), and many left Europe altogether – the lucky ones moving to the United States (New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles were the favored cities). Others remained behind.

It was obvious to most people by 1933, at least in Germany and Austria (and soon after in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia), that opposing the Nazi Party and Adolph Hitler was bad for your health and livelihood. You didn’t have to be Jewish, but being Jewish or descended from Jews, could be lethal. If you wanted any career in Germany and Austria, even in music, you likely joined the Nazi Party: some supported Hitler and others feared him. (Likewise in Spain and Italy, opposing Franco or Mussolini was dangerous.) Many biographies completely black out the years 1939 to 1945 and skip to what they did after the war (if they were lucky enough to survive it). In Eastern Europe after the war, being a progressive artist was still difficult under the Communists, but not necessarily lethal.

In any case, if I learned a composer joined the Nazi Party, I mention it. You and I might not want to perform a work by such a composer, but ultimately it’s your choice.

So, since I was dividing the list up by year, I decided to also include some historical highlights for each year (1920-1930). Some were fun facts: such as the lists of a few popular tunes in each year. Some showed how science and technology were changing the world, especially in communications and in the consumption of music. I don’t think any composer or musician in the 1920s would have predicted World War II, but there were events in the 1920s that effected how the war came to be and how it turned out. (That’s a fascinating thing about history.)

Enough, let’s get this show on the road.

There are only two very short works for woodwind quintet written in 1920 by Henri Maréchal and Lodewijk Mortelmans.

This series continues. Next 1921…