My Wind Octet shares the same instrumentation as two of Mozart’s famous Serenades. I have always found this instrumentation the most
effective of the wind instrument chamber groups, largely because the doubled winds help blend the heterogeneous ensemble.
The piece begins with a lengthy bassoon duet, accompanied by sustained stopped-horn tones. In this soli passage, the oboes and clarinets
are conspicuously absent, as the bassoons explore a wide range of expression and dramatic tempo changes. But all bassoon duets must end,
and a faster passage emerges, now dividing the labor evenly throughout the ensemble. Much of the music is designed to display the instruments’ more coarse registers, but occasionally the oboes and clarinets are allowed lyrical lines. Just before the music reaches a climax it is choked and pulled back into the mellow sound world of the introduction. The calm cannot remain, and from it spirals one final spectacle of the most exciting material from the Allegro, forcing the piece to a harsh conclusion.