Steve Martland

Wolf-Gang

With Wolf-Gang, the British composer Steve Martland, ironizingly, follows the 18-century tradition of wind music ensembles with which underpaid musicians made some money on the side. Martland arranged six arias from Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Le Nozze di Figaro for wind octet, adapting them to today's possible playing techniques. By adding cor anglais and soprano saxophone, it was possible to have each aria played by a different combination of instruments so that each aria stands out against the others with regard to the sound. While rearranging the instrumentation, Martland left the musical material of Mozart untouched.