Bost (Five)

Score and parts available on this site € 30,-

One of the most outstanding musicians I ever met is horn-player Ron Schaaper. We met at the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and have been working together for many many years now. He never stops to amaze me. And he is also one of those musicians that will play on every instrument they have in their hands, guitar, piano, whatever. Finally he sings like an angel (don’t worry Ron; it is just horn in this piece) and whistles like crazy. (he was a featured ‘whistle’ soloist in my arrangement of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliette last year..)

So I approached him two years ago, asking him if he would like me to write a piece for him. He then suggested that I would write a piece for his wind quintet, the Orlando Quintet. A group with some of the finest wind players in the Netherlands. I happily embraced this suggestion but of course no time to write it…. I developed some ideas but never really started working on a piece.

And then in the creative spring/summer of this year (2015) I stumbled upon these earlier ideas and was so inspired that I wrote BOST in about three weeks. 

BOST is Basque for 5 and that is for my friend Oihana Arisitizabal who just gave birth to a daughter. Basque or ‘euskara’ is one of the most if not the most mysterious language in the world.

At the request of Juanma Gonzaléz Días I also made a version for reed quintet: oboe, clarinet in Eb, bass clarinet, soprano/alto saxophone, bassoon.