The origin of this flute quintet was the idea of a sound resulting from the concurrence of five identical instruments: in other words, not what one would call a flute family. It was precisely and all the more emphatically the limitation of the sound spectrum that represented the challenge associated with having different colors shine by different means. In this way, the connection of sound with harmony and rhythm arises as if of its own accord.

In the first movement, the flutists play “as if from one mouth”: a single synchronic unison, harmonically dazzling, rhythmically intricate. This is followed by a delicate, somewhat fragile atmospheric picture, in which the ensemble divides into two moving groups of notes. As a counterpart to the first movement, the last piece completes a frame. Here, the instruments move deliberately side by side, producing wandering balls of sound, interspersed with individual jags and edges. The ametric writing here, aiming at sound deformation, proves quite compatible with a cheerful, unselfconscious joy of playing, through which the middle section stands out vividly. This shows the composer’s intention, which he also pursues in other works again and again in order to capture and combine the variety of different, sometimes seemingly contradictory contemporary languages and techniques.