Oboe Lament, 2003

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from the composer's notes: Set for a soulful melancholy Oboe, an instrument my mother favored, this lament expresses at once sadness, virtuosity, exuberance, and determination. The musical ups and down parallel the meandering vicissitudes of life. The Oboe line breaks rules, stretches boundaries, but comes back down to the simple sound of Danny Boy and its doleful call to Danny to leave the Highlands, go to battle, and ultimate death. A sobering contemporary theme.