Oboe Quartet in D (2025)

Greetings all!  

Hot off the presses, here is my latest piece, my Oboe Quartet in D, for Oboe, Violin, Viola, and 'Cello.  It's in four movements and lasts about 17 minutes.  

I don't have any accounting for why I decided to write this piece.  I was just sitting there one day after I finished a Divertimento for woodwinds and had let some space come between - several weeks without writing - and the idea for the opening movement came to me out of the blue.  I started writing, and it came pretty easily.  The whole thing took about a month intermittently. 

I'm a violist, not an oboist.  A couple of weeks ago I made a post asking for some guidance as to the limitations of the oboe, and got some good answers.  After doing some research on my own additionally, and checking with a friend of mine who plays Classical Oboe, I've made some calculated demands in the upper register of the instrument that I'm hoping won't be too taxing on a Classical instrument.  It certainly should present no problems to a player on a modern instrument.  I did my best to provide reasonable opportunities for breath - the last movement being the most demanding in this way, but circular breathing may be a good option - as well as quite a number of rests to allow the player to rest his/her embouchure.  I've done my best without selling myself short, and I hope it shows.  

I hope you enjoy this.  I look forward to your comments.  Thanks!  

- Composed: November 13 - December 6, 2025 at Austin.

- Instrumentation: Oboe, Violin, Viola, Violoncello.

- Style: Classical, ca. 1790-1800

- Duration: 17:15

- Electronic Rendering by Finale 27 music notation software’s "Human Playback" with NotePerformer 4 artificial intelligence assisted interpretation.

Very solid first movement, should be quite enjoyable to play!

@PDdLB Thanks so much!   I tried to make it interesting for everybody.   

The Oboe writing is very accessible ..... a few judicious breathing places would be welcome though.

Mark

@MJFOBOE   thanks for checking it out.  I'll have to look again and see if I can create some more obvious places for breath, especially in the last movement.  

Why hello there @J. Lee Graham! 

And we are off: 

In the first four bars, the sentences has been established between the interaction of the strings and the oboe.  The presentation in b1-2 then continual b3-4 followed liquidation that leads into the transition. Yes, we all know it is peculiar term.  Schoenberg was the first to coin it. Then we all learned. *sigh*.   The transition, I think, starts at b13?  Do you us a MC? nope.  MC is denied. This happens in sonata form.  We do not hear when the Secondary starts; it just a smooth transition.  Then we have the closing section, which wraps the exposition. I like how it brings us to start. 

The devoplment is nice reminder of the themes from the expo. it is never stays on a key. Nice job. 

Over all, I say,..this a great start.