Five Phrases (2009) 2'
For Oboe and Tuba
1. Thoughtful
2. Spelunking
3. Light
4. Pensive
5. Rip-roaring
Look at the score
Five Phrases is a very short work written on the evening of November 15, 2009. John DiCesare, Amanda Gallick, and I joked about me writing a work for them to play together. Oboe and tuba is a difficult combination that could either be quite interesting or quite boring. I decided that the best way to attempt this instrumentation was to write extremely short movements of various, mostly humorous, characters. I made a similar attempt in my monophonic bassoon work Streams. The oboe/tuba pieces are so short, in fact, that each movement is a single phrase. They variously explore the ranges of the instruments, their combinations, and lots of parallel major thirds. Phrases is decided to Mandy and John.
Premiere Performance: May 5, 2010
Student Composers Concert
8pm Ludwig Recital Hall Kent State University
Amanda Gallick, Oboe
John DiCesare, Tuba