Description
This piece was written in response to a request from the Chione Oboe Trio for a
work for 3 oboes, or a combination of oboe, oboe d'amore and cor anglais.
Oboe 2 has alternative passages for oboe d’amore if one is available.
The piece was first performed on August 8th 1996 at Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran
by Pipers Three. Oboe 2 was played by an oboe d’amore throughout.
The dedicatee was a fellow student of the composer at London University.
The work is built around the notes A CHED DA CB(flat), together with the
remaining notes of the serial row, and also a four-note motif from the Adagio of
Bruckner's 9th Symphony, a work revered by both the composer and the
dedicatee, and a performance of which the composer attended on the day that he
learnt of Katherine's death.
After the opening, there are two short passages, one lyrical and one humorous,
the latter in Scottish vein. Thereafter the opening material is re-stated, but using
retrogrades. The development is in variation form, and the recapitulation is cut
off almost as soon as it begins, but with an elegiac coda, ending in a chord of G
major, signifying release from a long illness.
The pdf file includes score and parts and also the optional oboe d'amore part.
The sound sample is a perfomance by Pipers Three in 1996