Description

Petite suite maritime presents Canada’s Estria woodwind quintet in a program of Canadian works for winds by Maurice Dela, Jacques Hétu, James MacDonald Gayfer, Walter Buczynski and Jean Papineau-Couture composed between 1947 and 1967. This collection is a small sampling of the earliest Canadian repertoire for the woodwind quintet, beginning with Maurice Dela’s French impressionist-style Petite Suite Maritime (1946) and ending with Jacques Hétu’s virtuosic Quintette pour instruments à vent, opus 13 (1967). Although chamber music in Canada dates back to the late 1800s, there were no woodwind quintets in this country until the middle of the 20th century. Canadian composers began to write for the woodwind quintet as early as 1946, and these earlier creations were heavily influenced by European compositional techniques. Beginning in the 1960’s, Canadian works for the woodwind quintet began to display a totally unique personality.