Dramatic and rhythmically intricate
music for advanced players. Each player takes the lead
at some time in the piece and contrapuntal lines weave
through the voices echoing the music's main motives.
For quintets with tuba, not bass trombone.
"Wanderer's thematic development is based
on echo and imitation. There are three major sections.
I based the first section on a noble theme, broad
and cantabile. The theme is introduced in octaves and
later played in canons at the unison, the melody weaving
back and forth among the instruments. The second section
begins with staccato repeated notes, marked risoluto.
The music builds twice to a quintuplet of climactic
repeated chords.
"Each instrument plays independently,
meeting the others at cadences, sometimes paired in
syncopated rather than unison rhythm. The section ends
in a pulsating pyramid texture that keeps growing again
from the bass until we hear the climactic quintuplet
chords once more. The third section begins with solos
and duets for trumpet, trombone, and horn. A lilting
coda, a graceful but spare minuet, ends quietly. The
wanderer disappears in the distance."