Bibliographies such as Harry Peters' The Literature of the Woodwind Quintet and Miroslav Hosek's The Woodwind Quintet are excellent sources of literature and are very helpful in locating specific pieces. Peters' book has annotations on a few of the pieces and both books are organized into categories of Quintet alone and quintet with other instruments or voices. However, because of the limited availability of such bibliographies and the lack of descriptive reviews of every work published, it is still a difficult task to discern between marginal compositions and works that prove to be worthy of serious performance. Another problem in building a repertoire is the difficulty in obtaining new works which have not been listed in bibliographies or which have not been published.
Many quintets have members who compose or arrange pieces for their group.
These pieces are available from the composer if not already published. Having been a member of an active quintet in recent years, I have come to greatly appreciate the pieces which have a positive effect on our audiences and patrons. When I began graduate studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, professor Richard Henderson suggested compiling a list of high quality program material for quintet. We felt that directly contacting quintet throughout the United States by means of a survey would produce the most relevant listing. By limiting it to the last two years the chances of new works making the list would be increased.