Wood

Composed for and dedicated to Woodwork Reed Quintet, Wood follows timber through seven stages: Nature, Harvesting, Debarking, Sawing, Drying, Planing and Sanding, and Finishing. Each short movement gives the process a distinct musical character: an organic opening, rough extremes for felling, repetitive gestures for stripping the bark, mechanical motion for sawing, suspended harmonies for drying, and even sounds of sanding performed by the musicians. When the opening material returns in the final movement, the work becomes a reflection on human intervention in nature—on the destruction involved in transforming a raw material and the beauty that can nevertheless emerge. Wood was premiered on 14 April 2024 at the Arte-Amanti Chamber Music Festival in Beernem. Woodwork later called it “a new pearl in our repertoire” and continues to feature it in programmes devoted to the ensemble’s commissioned works and favourites.