WIND QUINTET No.9 in Bb major, Op.226 No.2 (score & parts)

This is the second of my operetta trilogy, featuring Gilbert and Sullivan (well, just Sullivan, really). The first movement (The Mikado) opens with Miya sama, sung at the entrance of the Mikado in Act II and based on a genuine Japanese tune. The Allegro vivo begins with my own material, a perky little tune which later becomes fugal and keeps interrupting Three little maids from school. Incidentally, the little bassoon flourish at the end of Three little maids wasn’t in the original score, Sullivan was encouraged to add it, so there is an embarrassed silence the first time it happens, but it is there in the recap. The movement ends with the end of Act II. The second movement is based on Patience. Initially she is perhaps dallying with a faun some lazy afternoon, but soon she sings Love is a plaintive song followed by something of mine own. The middle section features a waltzified version of Twenty love-sick maids, before we join the first two tunes and Patience waltzes away. I often use material from a movement in a fugue or fugato (so everyone gets to play the tune) but rarely do I start with a fugue; in this scherzo I do. The fugue leads to elements of the Overture to Iolanthe; the Trio uses the Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare Song and If you go in. H.M.S. Pinafore provides the finale: in quick succession you get Sorry her lot - Refrain, audacious tar - I'm called Little Buttercup - A maiden fair to see - Never mind the why and wherefore; phew! IH