Movements

I. Nocturne

II. Idyll

III. Humoresque

Program Notes

In late 2023, my dear friend, Ben Newman, who was finishing his bachelors of oboe performance at the time, decided to commission a piece for oboe and piano from me for him to premiere on his senior recital. After struggling with what approach to take on the piece for a few months, I decided I would cast it in three movements with each movement portraying a piece of poetry: the first movement Robert Frost's Acquainted with the Night, the second movement the second part of T. S. Eliot's Preludes, and the third movement Rita Dove's Climacteric. These three poems ultimately create an arc from depression at night, to one's thoughts about the monotony of life when waking up in the morning, to giving into the small delights of life without reservation to what others think in the afternoon. Furthermore, I decided that I would make the second movement an homage to one of my favorite composers at the time, Debussy, and the third movement an homage to one of Ben's favorite composers at the time, Poulenc.

Permissions

Climacteric from Playlist for the Apocalypse, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, © 2021 by Rita Dove. By permission of Rita Dove.