Quintet l’homme armé

Douglas Boyce’s Quintet L’Homme Armé is created from a 15th c. melody of the same name. The piece is roughly in 2 halves. The first opens full of a bright edginess, streaming freely from a manic clarinet, all shrieks and flourishes. The second explores a quieter side of the instruments - introspective, transparent. The clarinet’s shrieks turn to moans. It is not that the intensity has bled out, it is still palpable. We now hear only its trace, a shimmering filament held taut.