Quartet for oboe and strings (score)

Instrumentation: oboe, violin, viola, and cello

Composed: 2009

Duration: ca. 10.5 min.

Score: 28 pp.

Parts: 31 pp.

Website: library.newmusicusa.org/allenbrings

Nothing excites a composer's imagination more than the challenge of composing for a combination of instruments he hasn't tried before or by writing for an instrument that by itself presents extraordinary challenges – as the oboe surely does. Having accepted one such challenge by having recently written a concertino for oboe and string orchestra, I decided it was time to write a quartet for oboe and strings. In order to do that, however, I did not feel I needed to abandon the musical language that I had nurtured for so many years but rather to adapt that language – with all of its expressivity – to the latest circumstances. Listeners to this new work will recognize then how the music projects character at every turn, changing it constantly in response to the necessity of both the moment and the overall purpose of the "argument." The music of the first movement can be heard (as the listener wishes) as that of a meditative, yet passionate, contemplative, the second (perhaps) that of an ironic jester, and the third, after a soulful (brooding?) introduction, that of an uninhibited athlete who pauses only to catch his breath but who also, toward the end, remembers having witnessed some of the events of the first two movements. If composing this Quartet for Oboe and Strings presented its composer with challenges, he is no less aware of the challenges its music will present to its performers and its listeners.

Website:	http://amc.net/allenbrings
Email:	miramusic@aol.com

Related:

Quartet for oboe and strings (parts) B34-E2009-1bPDF $7.00