Duologue
Allen Brings
About this work:
It is not unusual for a composer to seek relief from a big project by writing one or more shorter pieces with only modest instrumentation. Having comleted a "short symphony" for symphonic wind ensemble in 1998, I too sought to relax and to refresh my imagination by composing an approximately five minute piece for two woodwind instruments. Little did I realize it at the time that the fascination and challenge of writing such music would quickly lead to still more "duologues," each for a different pair of instruments--not excluding, of course, my own instrument, the piano. As of this date, October 31, 2002, six have been completed.
The malleability and expressive possibilities of a single melodic line and its adventures when travelling in the company of another melodic line have always had a special attraction for me just as, I suppose, the short story has had occasionally for the novelist. When the choice is two dissimilar instruments with markedly different timbres and ways of articulating tones, the possibilities for striking characterizations are innumerable. To observe how they interact with one another can, in fact, be much like watching a two-character playlet. As in a playlet, the two instruments in each of these pieces have been dealt the same two
contrasting subjects or themes which they are obliged to develop. How they react to this dramatic situation is what we the listeners are intent on learning. At times they are quite volatile, at others calm and reflective. Sometimes they are excitable and argumentative or may even pretend not hear what the other is saying. Always, they are eager to involve us in their interactivity, and, if the actors have done their job properly, indeed we will.
Score and parts available from Mira Music Associates. Contact: miramusic@aol.com
Recorded on Capstone Records CPS-8753
Version: oboe & clarinet
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:04:52
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet