Soaring - oboe and piano - 2003/7
(also exists in an arrangement for oboe and string quartet, and a version for soprano saxophone and piano)

duration 17 minutes

1 Soaring ~ 2 Capricious, Cold ~ 3 Still ~ 4 Dancing

"The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars..." [Elizabeth Barrett Browning]

Completed in August 2003 this marked, to some extent, unfinished business, picking up afresh from the opening of a little piece abandoned just before my long silence. Initially conceived as an oboe/piano duo this was slightly expanded into a piece with a prominent oboe solo accompanied by a "Schubert Trout" line-up. In this form it won 3rd prize in the Ivan Spassov competition in Bulgaria. However, reworking backwards, a duo version for oboe and piano was then reconstructed. To add further to the complicated genesis, an additional 'scherzo' movement was inserted. This won 1st prize in the IMRO Composers' Competition in Ireland in 2006, being performed by Chris Redgate and Mary Dullea at the Arklow Festival.

The sextet version was subsequently withdrawn in favour of a subsidiary rescoring for oboe and string quartet (2007), made at the request of Joe Robinson, ex-NY Phil principal oboe (though sadly circumstance prevented a planned performence). A further arrangement was requested by Valentina Renesto and Giuseppe Bruno for alto saxophone and piano.

The first movement finds the oboe placed very high with fluid, cascading figures predominating; its central section, by contrast, is more static and restrained. The second movement scherzo reworks one of my Sappho Songs. Brief and somewhat relentless in its agitation, it is based around diminished triads. The third movement is very much a cantilena: expressive and emotional. The short finale is a little dance, reworking ideas from the first movement.

PLEASE READ: THESE ARE NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN WORKS. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. PRINTED COPIES ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY 

oboe and piano

SCORE (oboe/piano) oboe

Arrangement for soprano saxophone and piano

SCORE (sop. sax./piano) soprano saxophone

Arrangement for oboe and string quartet

Score (quintet) oboe violin I violin II viola cello

Sadly this recording is only modest in audio quality. It combines two separate performances:
movements 1, 3 and 4 by Chris Redgate (oboe) and Mary Dullea (piano) from the Arklow Festival 2005;
3rd movement played alone in Los Angeles by Naomi Ozawa (oboe) and Pamela Yan (piano) in 2015.

1. Soaring  

2. Capricious, cold  

3. Still  

4. Dancing  

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