Title: Early Development of the Woodwind Ensemble
Headings: 
The Early Development of the Wind Quintet
Content: The nucleus of  the Harmonie was a pair of horns, beneath which were bassoons (in early Harmoniemusic where there was only a single part two  players would commonly play in unison) and above a pair of treble instruments, usually oboes or clarinets; by the 1780’s  it was standard practice to employ both oboes and clarinets in an octet Harmonie. Flutes,  English horns and basset-horns were also occasionally used as alternatives or in addition. [ 2]
The octet was first  used in central Europe by Prince Schwarzenber, but the ensemble was used extensively in the Vienna court of Joseph II around  1782. [ 3]
Although this  ensemble was used in courts and for outside performances, it did not flourish as the string quartet did. One of the reasons for this was that the wind instruments were technically highly-flawed and difficult  to control. With technical advances in instrument making, composers were able  to write more virtuosic passages as well as discontinue the practice of instrument doubling. The  first composer to write for a wind quintet was Franz Anton Rösler, better known as Francesco Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792). Rosetti was a Bohemian-Bavarian composer whose main compositional activity was from  1773 to 1789, after he renounced his vows as a secular priest. [ 4] He served Prince Kraft Enrst of Oetttingen-Wallerstein in Bavaria  during this time;