Programme Note The Oxford Dictionary defines Humour as follows: "Humour began its interesting career as a Latin word humor, meaning "moisture". In a more specialized sense, "humour" meant the fluids of the body. In the ancient physiology still current in the middle ages and later, the four cardinal humours of the body were blood (sanguis), phlegm, yellow bile (choler) and black bile (melancholy); the variant mixtures of these humours in different people determined their "complexions" or "temperaments". In my first woodwind quintet, Cholê, Op. 17 (1975), I treated the "choleric" or angry temperament. In this present work, I treat the remaining three humours. The first movement describes the Phlegmatic complexion: "not easily excited to feeling or action; lacking enthusiasm; cold, dull, sluggish"; or, by contrast, "cool, calm, self-possessed." The phlegmatic humour is represented by an E flat sounded throughout most of the movement by one or more of the instruments. The others attempt to divert the phlegmatic person from his sluggish course. In the end, it is the cool, self-possessed person who triumphs. The second movement reflects the Melancholy disposition: gloomy, depressed. Free-flowing melodies emerge, mingle with other melodies and fade away. The third movement represents the Sanguine complexion: hopeful, amorous or courageous. Martial rhythms alternate with episodic sections (representing in turn the hopeful/amorous and the courageous characters) whose material reflects upon motifs heard in the earlier movements. Three Humours is dedicated to the Aeolian Winds. The work was written in the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta during August and September, 1991. Each of the movements was written for three artists and very good friends whose inspiration and encouragement made this work possible: Gil Adamson, Sherrill Hunnibell and Susan Eckenwalder.