In an Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room

Scott’s “Quintette” actually had six members; he thought the five-syllable name sounded crisper and worried that “sextet” might distract people from the music. He also composed directly on the band, teaching parts by ear and recording rehearsals instead of handing out conventional scores, so Mozart’s K. 545 theme passed through an unusually exacting musical laboratory before emerging as this clockwork jazz miniature.