Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

This Sonata for Oboe and Piano is the 6^th in a series of Sonatas that began in 2000 with the Sonata for Violin and Piano, written for my wife Marianne Rothschild. But the connections date even further back to 1984 when I played the Poulenc Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1962) with my mother, Betty Scarlett, accompanying me on piano for my year 12 oboe exam in Melba Hall in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music building, where I have subsequently studied and worked for most of my adult life.

While this sonata in 3 movements was written largely as 'abstract' music (as far as such a thing exists), it increasingly formed in my mind as a journey from the familiar to the unknown. And as I often write about planet Earth and the larger context of the universe, this distilled to a journey from our home planet, via the human imperative for exploration, to the outer reaches of the universe.

This Sonata is written for Celia Craig, a former principal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and current Principal Oboe with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Our paths crossed at the AYO National Music Camp in January 2015, where I heard her wonderful playing in the Britten Phantasy Quartet. Celia suggested working with David Barnard and hearing the two of them play the new work together in rehearsal in July 2016 (Tallis Wing, University of Melbourne) was a sublime memorable experience.

Work Details

Year: 2015

Instrumentation: Oboe, piano.

Duration: 21 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Contents note: I. our home planet -- II. the human imperative for exploration -- III. the outer reaches of the universe.

Written for: David Barnard, Celia Craig

First performance: by Celia Craig, David Barnard — 24 Apr 17. Melba Hall, University of Melbourne