A Christmas Story for Wind Quintet and Narrator  — Op. 57

Story by Stephen Pegg. Music by Mark Goddard

A new edition is now available in printed or digital format from Clifton Edition!

 A charming Christmas story, ideal for a family Christmas concert. The Narrator tells the story, while the music features each of the instruments of the wind quintet in turn.

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 young “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 his wind quintet ‘The Five Winds’ and first performed at 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.

Available in a new edition, re-published in 2020 during the composer’s 60th year as part of Spartan’s 30th anniversary celebrations. The score and parts have been fully typeset to the highest standards and replace the old legacy edition of 1990.

N.B. The flute doubles on alto flute and piccolo and the oboe doubles on cor anglais.

Introducing A Tale of Five Winds

A full performance


Sample pages


Listen to the music