To The Middle and Back (Score & Parts)-WW5

To the Middle and Back for woodwind quintet

by Lon W. Chaffin 

To the Middle and Back has five movements, each featuring different instruments of the ensemble. The first and fifth movements feature the flute and horn. The second and fourth highlight the oboe and bassoon, while the third movement stands alone, giving the clarinet the spotlight. 
The thematic material and harmonic vocabulary follow the same format as the instrumental emphases, demonstrating a typical arch form. This, the title of the piece alludes to the formal structure. 
Although movements one and two have their counterparts in five and four, the latter are not replications. The first two represent a type of exposition, while five serves as development and recapitulation for one, and four, the same for two. Movement three stands alone with exposition-, development-, and recapitulation-type sections. 
THe melodic and harmonic vocabulary explores pentatonic and modal scale structures within both quartal and quintal and tertian vertical sonorities. The metrical forms are very traditional in the first two and last two movements, but the third demonstrates oscillation between symmetrical and asymmetrical meters as well as an interweaving of the two. 

-Lon Chaffin