oboe

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#1. Modulating text through the instrument

The piece for English horn is based on texts by Lewis Carroll talking about time. The text is spoken through the tube of the English horn using the whole instrument - pipe, reeds and fingering- like a modulator for the spoken-sang voice spectrum.

The subject "time" from Carroll's texts is triggering the exploration of different speeds both in speech and in percussion effects. This piece is about clocks, beatings and superposition of different psychological tempi.

" ...but I know I have to beat time when I learn music"

L. Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Texts by Lewis Carroll used in “Música invisible para oboe”

Collaboration: Esther Kurst

Esther Kurtz (1976) groeide op in de buurt van Boston, Verenigde Staten, waar ze met hoboles begonnen is aan de vooropleiding van de New England Conservatory. In 1998 haalde ze haar diploma Bachelor of Music with Distinction aan de Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, VS, waar ze bij Richard Killmer hobo en bij Erin Hannigan barokhobo studeerde. Om haar studie te voortzetten, is Esther in 1999 naar Nederland gekomen, met financiële steun van een Fullbright Full Grant. Hier heeft ze hobo gestudeerd bij Ernest Rombout aan de Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. In juni 2003 is ze cum laude afgestudeerd van de tweede fase (Master of Music) richting Uitvoerende Musicus, solo/kamermuziek. In Nederland heeft ze met het Ricciotti Ensemble en het Nationaal Jeugd Orkest gespeeld en met o.a. Musica Ducis in Den Bos en Holland Symfonia in Amsterdam. Verder treed zij regelmatig op met haar piano-hobo duo hibiki, met wie zij heeft gespeeld in de Suitemuziekweek 2004. Zij richt zich op het uitbreiden van het hobo repertoire door jonge componisten te benaderen om nieuwe stukken voor haar te schrijven.

#2. Extremely thin-reed glissando technique

This piece for oboe is based on a special reed, with a very long scrap. It is played with the lips away from the tip, technique which allows extremely flexible and deep glissandi -in detriment of tuning which becomes more uncertain-.

This piece explore all kind of glissandi techniques with different speeds, amplitude, duration, dynamics. The thin reed gives the instrument a rather wild character. On the other hand, the piece uses extremely soft multiphonics, which opposes the wild concreteness of the glissandi to a more unsound condition.

Música invisible para oboe y corno inglés - Libro IV

Invisible music for oboe and English horn- Book IV (2004)

The idea of "Música invisible para oboe y corno inglés" is to re-think the oboe from a different perspective, slightly away from its tradition and its literature. The organology - technical aspects of how instruments produce sound - and the exploration of different acoustical possibilities are the raw material from which the piece is built.

Extended techniques refer to new skills and a work in the boundaries of the tradition of the instrument, but mainly they aim at suggesting different perspectives to the perception.