Greetings all!
Hot off the presses, here is my latest piece, my Oboe Quartet in D, for Oboe, Violin, Viola, and 'Cello. It's in four movements and lasts about 17 minutes.
I don't have any accounting for why I decided to write this piece. I was just sitting there one day after I finished a Divertimento for woodwinds and had let some space come between - several weeks without writing - and the idea for the opening movement came to me out of the blue. I started writing, and it came pretty easily. The whole thing took about a month intermittently.
I'm a violist, not an oboist. A couple of weeks ago I made a post asking for some guidance as to the limitations of the oboe, and got some good answers. After doing some research on my own additionally, and checking with a friend of mine who plays Classical Oboe, I've made some calculated demands in the upper register of the instrument that I'm hoping won't be too taxing on a Classical instrument. It certainly should present no problems to a player on a modern instrument. I did my best to provide reasonable opportunities for breath - the last movement being the most demanding in this way, but circular breathing may be a good option - as well as quite a number of rests to allow the player to rest his/her embouchure. I've done my best without selling myself short, and I hope it shows.
I hope you enjoy this. I look forward to your comments. Thanks!
- Composed: November 13 - December 6, 2025 at Austin.
- Instrumentation: Oboe, Violin, Viola, Violoncello.
- Style: Classical, ca. 1790-1800
- Duration: 17:15
- Electronic Rendering by Finale 27 music notation software’s "Human Playback" with NotePerformer 4 artificial intelligence assisted interpretation.