Work
Sonata : Music grave and gay : for oboe or soprano saxophone and piano
by John Carmichael (2010)
Audio Sample
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Performance by Stephen Robinson, Antony Gray from the CD Escapades |
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Score & Part
Sonata: Music grave & gay : for oboe or soprano saxophone & piano / John Carmichael ; edited by Stephen Robinson.
Library shelf no. 788.52183/CAR 1 [Not for loan]
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Work Overview
When Stephen Robinson contacted me with a view to commissioning a
work for oboe & piano I deemed myself to be a very lucky
composer; I had
heard his CD Bright Vessel in which several other Australian
composers had their works displayed at their very best.
Stephen did not stipulate or insist on any particular musical
form for this work; he generously gave me permission to let my
imagination take me
wherever it led, but he did mention that he did not want the oboe
type-cast only as eminently suited to music in a pastoral style.
He hoped that I would explore other facets and characteristics of
the instrument.
Accordingly I searched for melodic material of a highly
contrasted nature - lively, sober, calm, energetic etc., and
then, quite early on, a quote I had heard from Alexander Pope in
his Essay On Man - 'from grave to gay' gave me both the title and
the focus for what I wanted to write. - a piece which explores a
wide variety of moods, and allows the oboe to display how it can
be grave, gay, dynamic, lyrical, and even pastoral !
In the 1st mvt. oboe and piano echo each other's statements until
they lead each other into darker territory and a cadenza based on
the opening descending scale which returns in up-beat mode in the
final section.
In the slow mvt. there are two centres of gravity - the first
sober, somewhat forlorn, the second - aspiring and lyrical; they
alternate and there is an uneasy truce between the two,
unresolved in the final bars.
After a boisterous start, in the final Allegro piano and oboe
insult each other, the piano rudely interrupting the oboe's happy
musings until a cadenza
gives the latter the upper hand ; an 'anything you can do I can
do better' contest ensues until oboe pronounces itself the
winner.
Work Details
Year: 2010
Instrumentation: Oboe (or soprano saxophone), piano.
Duration: 11 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Commission note: Commissioned by Sylvie Leprohon, Stephen Robinson.
First performance: by Stephen Robinson, Anthony Halliday — 17 Jul 10. Rosslyn Hill Chapel, London
Title taken from: 'From grave to gay’ from An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope, 1688 -1744
Subjects
- In the form/style of: Sonatas
Performances of this work
Unknown date.
17 Jul 10: Rosslyn Hill Chapel, London. Featuring Stephen Robinson, Anthony Halliday.
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