Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Three Pieces was written specifically for the final recital by the celebrated oboist Diana Doherty in September 2025 at the Ukaria Cultural Centre.

The 3 movements can be performed together or individually, each one exploring a contrasting set of ideas.

1. Mechanical Bird is a mischievous reference to the gilded mechanical nightingale in Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale. Like a well oiled machine, the cogs and gears of the piano spring to life and the oboe is transformed into a strutting, whirring, sometimes obstinate clockwork bird that chirps loudly and performs amazing feats of dexterity with machine-like insistence. Eventually the tension in the springs are spent and the show is over.

2. Tears of the Moon

In the glow of the full moon, love, sadness and grief intermingle as the restless mind cycles through a myriad of meditations and deliberations.

This piece embraces a determinedly more serious and emotionally engaged sound world, with a faint shadow of jazz colouring, a reference to Diana's recent foray into jazz piano.

3. Tumbalong

The final piece in the collection is a virtuosic interplay between oboe and piano that brings to centre stage Dee and Beep's joyous countenance, rhythmic sensibility, boundless lyricism and wicked sense of humour.

It is named after a playground on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour near my studio, and where I visit often with the grandkids.

Work Details

Year: 2025

Instrumentation: Oboe, piano.

Duration: 22 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Commission note: Commissioned by Ukaria for Diana Doherty and is dedicated to her with love and admiration. It was made possible through the generosity of commissioning partners Gillian Eldershaw and Andrew and Renata Kaldor.

First performance: by Diana Doherty — Sep 25. Ukaria Cultural Centre