Woodwind - Wiener classical - Christmas - Contemporary - Oboe - 4

Composed for the Vientos Trio, this is a perfect piece for a college recital.  It is both fun for the players and audience pleasing.

For Oboe and Piano, "Bombur's Dream" is a three movement work that is a wonderful recital piece.

Program notes from the composer: 

For those who may need to brush up on their dwarf-lore, Bombur was one of thirteen dwarves featured in J. R. R. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit. Along with the title character, Bilbo Baggins, and Gandalf the wizard, Bombur and the other dwarves set out on a long and dangerous quest to recover a vast treasure which had been stolen by the dragon Smaug. Along the way, Bombur stumbled into an enchanted river and promptly fell into a deep sleep from which he could not be awakened for several days. This meant that his friends had to carry him along with all their gear. (It should be noted that Bombur had what we might call a keen appreciation for fine cuisine; because of his resulting avoirdupois he was not an easy burden to bear.)

Eventually Bombur awoke but, according to Tolkien, when he learned that there was nothing to eat, he sat down on the ground and wept. “Why did I ever wake up?” he cried. “I was having the most beautiful dreams!”

The first movement of this piece has to do with Bombur’s lovely dreams and the second with his sorrow upon awakening. The third movement, “King Under the Mountain” is a cortège for the dwarves’ officious leader, Thorin Oakenshield. Bombur’s Dream is dedicated to the composer’s wife, the oboist Susan Joyce.

Oboe, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and Bassoon

Drift was written for the TIMBER Reed Quintet at the Ohio State University. Upon attending rehearsals and listening to the dynamic of the group, I was fascinated with the way the five instruments blended their sound together and the vast array of timbres that could emerge from the various combinations. This sparked my vision to create a piece that would highlight these abilities. Drift makes use of rhythmic ambiguity and uses a Jazz influence to create a musical idea of drifting along. 

For 2 Oboes and English Horn, "Five Elfin Dances" is a fun piece that works best in a recital setting.  The movements include:

I. The Busy Village

II. Cautious Explorers

III. Dance in the Glen

IV. The Princess's Song

V. Bound for Home

Program notes from the composer:

These miniatures began as musical doodling, written for fun during breaks from work on larger pieces.  I have no idea why, but the first three pieces feature fleeting quotes from J. S. Bach.

These pieces were played several times soon after they were completed, including one performance for a class of 5th-graders at a local elementary school. In the days following that performance, the three musicians received several cards from the students.  One girl wrote, "Thanks for coming.  I was going to play the oboe but now I have decided not to."  It's a wonderful thing to be able to influence a young life with one's music.

This trio for Oboe, Alto Saxophone, and Piano was commissioned by Dr. Debra McKim, Professor of Music at Hastings College in Nebraska.  Each movement of this piece is based on a different synthetic scale. 

The first movement is based on a five-note scale that includes the notes of a half-diminished chord plus the major second.  Harmonic motion is created by transposing the scale up by minor thirds every measure, then every two beats, and finally every beat. 

The second movement is based on a symmetrical six-note scale that include three half-steps:  B, C, Eb, E, G, Ab.  The scale remains the same throughout the movement, without modulation.  Augmented harmonies are created by building chords from every other note of the scale. 

The third movement uses the same six-note scale throughout: Db, E, F, F#, A, C. Harmonic motion is very limited in this movement

This is an excellent for a college recital.

This "Sonata" for Oboe and Piano is in 3 movements and is a nice addition to the college recital repertoire.  The movements are:

I. Prelude

II. Rondo

III. Fantasia

Program notes from the composer:

Brian Joyce’s two sonatas, one for oboe and piano, the other for flute and piano (also published by Cimarron Music Press) are sister works. Both were written in 1971 when Joyce was an undergrad composition major in college and both are reflective of the seasons in which they were composed: the flute sonata, written in Spring, is fresh, expansive and tuneful while the oboe sonata, composed the following September, has a more burnished autumnal quality. About the oboe sonata the composer writes:

“My intention in this sonata was to write a more tightly and economically constructed work than the flute sonata of the previous Spring, while trying out some new ideas I had been considering. The oboe sonata breaks the traditional mold immediately by putting its slow movement first, following it with a galloping rondo, and saving its longest, most complex movement for last.  This third movement has a symmetrical arch-like form in which the key centers of each successive principal section rise by minor thirds. This puts the central slow section (equidistant from both ends of the movement) at a tritone away from the movement’s ostensible key. There is also quite a bit of dabbling with metric modulation and non-tertian harmony. The Sonata was revised in 1992 and received its premiere in November 1993. At that time, the piece was older than I was when I first wrote it.”

The sonata is dedicated to the composer’s wife, the oboist Susan Joyce. 

For Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Harpsichord, this "Sonata da Chiesa" is in four movements

1.Es ist ein’ Ros entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming)

2. Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come)

3. Joseph lieber, Joseph mein (Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine)

4. In Dulci Jubilo (Good Christian Men, Rejoice)

Subtitled "Sequence" Learn More

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Trombone/Bassoon Duet and Organ

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