A Tale of Five Winds by Mark Goddard is a charming Christmas story, ideal for a family concert. The Narrator tells the story, featuring each of the instruments of the wind quintet. The bassoon (a sleepy bear), cor anglais (a romantic lady), clarinet (a mad cobbler) and piccolo (a fisher-boy) are all visited in turn by the precocious ‘Mountain Wind’ (the French horn) in Stephen Pegg’s imaginative story which is based on an ancient Chinese fable.

Duration: approx. 20 minutes. Commissioned by John Essias for the Oxford based wind quintet ‘The Five Winds’ for a Children’s Christmas concert in Oxford in 1985. Later performed at the Holywell Music Rooms in Oxford and on tour by ‘The Oxford Wind Quintet.

Scoring

Flute (doubling on Alto Flute and Piccolo)
Oboe (doubling on Cor Anglais)
Bb Clarinet
Bassoon
Horn in F

YouTube introduction: https://youtu.be/Ul2NPdSOFis?si=Prxtub28JGTKimTT
YouTube performance: https://youtu.be/UC3_BeuRe44?si=gpFYIRlSI5xWsY-W