A musical joke with a Celtic flavour.

The word Cúigear in Gaelic means simply “Five” - so with the request to write an “Irish, folky type piccolo quintet” - I thought this title worked perfectly.

It’s a joke because we begin in 4 - waves of diffuse sound accompanying a ghostly melody - we then go into a jig in ⅞ - followed by a little jaunt into 6/8, ⅜, 2/4 and even ¼ - so never actually ever arriving at a 5 in a bar tempo.

This received its premiere performance at the International Flute Seminar Bruges in July 2026 with Peter Verhoyen, Sarah Miller, Blaz Snoj and Marianna Busslechner joining me (Gareth McLearnon) and was wonderful received! Recording to follow!