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Antoine-Joseph Reicha (1770-1836) published this work, the fifth of his Six Quintuors Op. 91, with the House of Simrock in 1819-1820, the plate number being 1718. Nikolaus Simrock indicates that this is Quintet No. 11 in his series. The quintets themselves are entitled in Italian (Quintetto) within the parts, and in French (Quintuors) on the Frontispiece.

The instruments are given French names on the frontispiece: flûte, hautbois, clarinette,  cor and bassoon; but again, Italian pervades the actual parts: flauto (traverso), oboe, clarinetto, corno, and fagotto. No scores are supplied by Simrock for any of the Op. 91 quintets; in fact, it would have been quite unusual had this been the case. Like madrigals published in the 16th Century, we have‘part-book’ format in use for these works.

Clarinet in A is specified for this particular composition, while the hand-horn player will use both E and D crooks. I have supplied parts in F for the horn, in order that modern horn players might avoid transposition at sight in such a complex work.

The Op. 91 Quintuors are set in the following keys which alternate major with minor works:

No. 1 (7) Ut majeur
No. 2 (8) Là mineur
No. 3 (9) Ré majeur
No. 4 (10) Sol mineur
No. 5 (11) La majeur
No. 6 (12) Ut mineur

In the preface, which is signed by the five members of the original group which played these quintets, it is made clear that these wind players sought, through performing Reicha’s works, to remedy the overwhelming interest awarded to string instruments in chamber music of the day, at the expense of wind ensembles.

The original quintet for which this work was composed consisted of the following members:

Joseph Guillou (1787-1853) flute
Gustave Vogt (1781-1870) oboe
Jacques-Jules Bouffil (1783-?) clarinet
Louis-François Dauprat (1781-1868) horn
One Monsieur Henry was the bassoonist in the ensemble.

First Movement
Like No. 3 in the Opus 91 series, No. 5 is a light work. The military motive comprising Theme 1A-B of the first movement, and the plethora of simple tunes in its exposition set the tone. To be sure, Reicha does utilize imitation within the development of his first movement, but it is not extensive.

Following false starts of the first two phrases of the Allegro, these being interrupted by two introductory passages in Adagio, a bright sonata form, befitting the key of A major, gets underway. After the expansive sonata forms found in the outer movements of the G minor quintet of Op. 91, this compact sonata form comes as somewhat of a relief. One wonders if this is movement was actually once part of an early experimental composition, based upon the Feldpartie style of wind music from Reicha’s youthful days at the court of the Öttingen-Wallersteins. In any case, the thematic structure of the exposition is easy to follow: primary themes 1A-B, 2A-B-CC', 3, and 2CC' (again) are followed by five closing themes (2k1through 2k5), each of which is repeated in order to tonicize the dominant.

The development hardly qualifies as such, as it is mostly comprised of themes of the exposition played outright: after an imitative transition, Reicha proceeds with themes 2B-CC', 2CC', and 3.
 
When I first listened to the recapitulation, heralded by a solid tonic at measure 246, it almost seemed like a random sampling of Reicha’s favorite themes from the exposition had gotten underway. But actually Reicha is simply reordering his thematic material. Omitting Theme 3, the recapitulation proceeds thematically as follows: 2B, Theme 1A-B, 2CC', 2k1, 2k2, 2k3, 2k1, 2k2, 2A, and finally Themes 2k4 and 2k5.

Second Movement
The structure of the Adagio is basically a Rondo with two Couplets set in the subdominant. Each time the Refrain (Theme 1) reappears, it is treated to variation. The modulations within Theme 2 are quite unexpected.

The movement is arranged as follows:
Refrain = Theme 1
Variation 1 on Refrain
Couplet: Theme 2 in V
Variation 2 on Refrain
Couplet: Theme 2 in I
Variation 3 on Refrain

Third Movement
Marked Menuetto as in all the previous scherzi within in Reicha’s Op. 91, this one has a pastorale feeling with its pedal points and folksy thematic materials. In fact, the Trio is a Ländler set in the subdominant. Both the Menuetto proper and its Trio are cast in rounded binary form.This movement is short, but sweet.

Fourth Movement
We now have yet another sonata form! Despite that choice, this finale maintains the lightness present from the outset of this work. One would have thought that Reicha might have opted for a rondeau here, but he had already discovered a way to make sonata form‘feel’ like a snappy rondeau. As in the first movement, Reicha thinks of his exposition as a collection of themes to be manipulated later in the development, and in what we today call recapitulation. In the case at hand, the exposition maintains a lavish plethora of themes (three primary and six closing), all of which reappear within the recapitulation. The rather short development is based mainly upon Themes 1 and 3 of the exposition, and not much in the way of development takes place. Instead, after a transition, Theme 1 is heard transposed to bVI and then to bIII; then Theme 3 is played in its enrtirety in bIII, afterwhich a transition is set up over a pedal point on V in order to reach the recapitulation.