Sextet - WW5/PN

Sextet
for woodwind quintet and piano
by Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) - English composer

This work was written in memory of Aubrey Brain, the great horn player and father of the equally distinguished Dennis Brain. Very shortly after its first performance by the Dennis Brain Ensemble, Dennis Brain himself was killed in a moto accident. The work can therefore be regarded as a double tribute to the memory of father and son.
The musical notes, A,B,E,B,A, taken from the name Aubrey Brain, are used as a thematic basis for all the movements except the Cortege, which, however, is in b-flat minor and is therefore centered around the note b-flat, thus bringing into prominence the initial "b". 
-Gordon Jacob, 1962