Duo for Oboe and Violin (2016)
Instrumentation: Oboe, violin.
Description: Using the minor pentatonic scale, I wanted to create a Japanese setting in this piece, and although the melodies may be considered Japanese, most of the harmonies are not and follow my continuing trend of French styles – although this time there was no particular piece I based this on. It is written in sonata-allegro form, and both instruments weave the two themes between each other in the exposition and recapitulation, both of which are indeed based on different Japanese scales. The development section is a crazy reworking of these themes, and although it sounds fairly contemporary, I think the general format is fairly similar to a Haydn development section. The end has a few bird calls and some violin triplets similar to that I used in my String Quartet, which I got in turn from a couple of Ravel’s pieces (his String Quartet, Introduction et Allegro).
I would like to thank Grace Dwyer and Rebecca Anderson for their wonderful performances in the recording below.