Suite for wind quintet (Zachary Senick) PHYSICAL

This is fifteen minute suite at an Advanced Level.

This is a four-movement suite that is 14.5 minutes in length that utilizes elements of classical music combined

with inspiration from Ukrainian folk music and dance.

I: Allegro con moto opens with chords that weave between consonant and dissonant in the ensemble. The flute then presents the first theme for the introduction based around augmented chords which the oboe joins in a contrapuntal manner while the flute develops the theme. Eventually, the chords in the ensemble become a syncopated ostinato of eighths and sixteenths and a bass line underneath. Next, a cantabile main theme is presented in the flute that throughout the movement undergoes different textures provided by the accompaniment. This is interrupted every so often by a diminished chord forte-piano chord on repeated eighth notes in the ensemble that grows for two measures before returning back to the main theme material.

II: Pastorale features a semplice melody consisting of eighth, quarter, and dotted quarter notes. It is first presented consonant in thirds by the flute and oboe overtop of a major chord drone in the clarinet, bassoon and horn. As the movement progresses the melody passes around the ensemble becoming more virtuosic, while harmonic shifts to more dissonance and folk harmonies such as using the Ukrainian minor scale, while the accompaniment parts become more intricate and contrapuntal.

IIII: Ukrainian Folk Song is a setting of the Ukrainian folk song “Nich yaka misyachna” (What a Moonlit Evening) that is first presented as a clarinet solo of the melody overtop of a bass line of longer note values in the bassoon. Throughout the movement it undergoes variations such as a chorale section of the melody in homorhythm and a fugal-like section.

IV: Scherzo and Ukrainian Dance Hopak is in ternary form in an energetic and lively character. The A section is a scherzo that has virtuosic sixteenth note passages that pass around the ensemble overtop of accompaniment figures such as trading eighth notes between pairs of instruments such as the bassoon and clarinet, a three scalar sixteenth notes leading to three repeated eighth notes motif in the flute, and vocal-like melody of eigth, quarter and half notes in pair of instruments such as the horn and bassoon. The B section is a Hopak featuring a bass line in the bassoon, off-beats in the horn, and a melody in the oboe, which the flute joins in on the second phrase of each section exploring a different harmony each time. Eventually, the clarinet enters with a virtuosic line that utilizes glissandos and vibrato that takes over leading into a cadenza to set up a return to the scherzo A section to conclude the work.

This is the first composition I composed and the inspiration came to me at the end of my doctoral studies. In November 2024, I had a 16-hour bus ride to an audition from Toronto to Albany. I had done lots of commissioning and workshopping pieces with Ukrainian composers and decided to give it a try to see if I would be able to compose something. I spent the bus ride writing a draft of this work. Then it sat until the spring of 2026 when my wind quintet Slava Ukraini Winds needed a piece by a local composer for a grant application. This forced me to revised and edit it the work to make it into a substantial piece to be performed by us. The world premiere was performed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on July 3 at St George’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral by Slava Ukraini Winds: Kyle Myrfield (flute), Carl Hofmeister (oboe), Allie Harrington (clarinet), composer (bassoon), & Taran Plamondon (horn), whom I dedicated the work to afterwards.

Recording: https://youtu.be/-LttKJ4jWf4?si=5p2fWEp79FTujr22

More information about composer: https://www.ukrainianchambermusic.com/#/composer/SENICK%2C%20Zachary