HE NEVER HEARD THAT FLESHLESS CHANT (2011)
For Oboe Solo
Duration ca. 15:00
PROGRAM NOTES
He Never Heard That Fleshless Chant takes its title from an 1890 poem called “The Wind,” by Emily Dickinson:
Of all the sounds despatched abroad,
There 's not a charge to me
Like that old measure in the boughs,
That phraseless melody
The wind does, working like a hand
Whose fingers brush the sky,
Then quiver down, with tufts of tune
Permitted gods and me.
When winds go round and round in bands,
And thrum upon the door,
And birds take places overhead,
To bear them orchestra,
I crave him grace, of summer boughs,
If such an outcast be,
He never heard that fleshless chant
Rise solemn in the tree,
As if some caravan of sound
On deserts, in the sky,
Had broken rank,
Then knit, and passed
In seamless company.
The composition is heavily influenced by the poem’s vivid imagery regarding the natural world. The performer is asked to use a variety of unusual techniques to realize these images sonically; throughout the piece, they face in different directions, raise and lower their instrument, stomp, and gently move their feet over the stage floor.
Premiered by Neal Rea in Borden Auditorium, New York, NY (October 2011)
SCORE PREVIEW
