Ian Stephens

Oboe Quintet for oboe and string quartet

Score

2014

ce-is1oq1-dl-s

Ian Stephens Oboe Quintet dedicated to the memory of David Dutch and Monica Nurnberg

I II Passacaglia III

I wrote the Oboe Quintet in 2014, though its gestation different time signature, though the bar-length stays has been much longer than this. The idea came from identical throughout. The time signatures have ever the committee of the Rodewald Concert Society in fewer subdivisions: 9/8, 8/8 (= 4/4), 7/8, 6/8, 5/8, 4/8 2012, and was prompted by the deaths of two former (= 2/4) and finally 3/8. In each section the Bach- committee members, David Dutch and Monica derived theme is used in a different way. The final 3/8 Nurnberg. Both were oboists, and both were important section is built from half-heard fragments of Bach’s figures in Liverpool’s amateur music scene. music.

David was a founder of the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra Third movement and Merseyside Youth Orchestra (now the Liverpool The finale is mainly quick. Marked molto vivace, the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra). As well as the oboe, opening statement sets up a dialogue between a cor anglais and oboe d’amore, he played to the viola in striving oboe melody and an off-kilter chorale in the later years. I had the pleasure of playing alongside him strings. This leads into a wild folk-inflected dance in the Crosby Symphony Orchestra, the Wirral section with a driving yet unpredictable rhythm. At the Symphony Orchestra and in string quartets on core of the movement is an expressive Adagio, in occasion. Monica was a founder member of the which the main theme passes from oboe to first violin Metropolitan Cathedral Orchestra and took a leading and back again. Then the wild dance returns. After a role in running it for many years. Both were regular reprise of a climactic episode from the first movement, participants in orchestras and chamber groups across the oboe is left alone to end the Quintet in rhapsodic the region. flight.

The piece is in three movements, and takes about 20 I am grateful to Alan Jones and the Rodewald Concert minutes to perform. Society for their tireless work in ensuring this piece comes to fruition, to the funders for their generosity, One theme, a melody which grows from a falling minor and to Jonathan Small and the Brodsky Quartet for third, heard at the very opening on the oboe, is central bringing the music to life so magnificently. to the two outer movements. Ian Stephens © 2014 First movement A free introductory statement on the oboe opens the The Oboe Quintet was first performed by Jonathan Quintet. At the agitato entry of the strings, another Small and the Brodsky Quartet at St George’s Hall element central to this movement is presented: a Concert Room, Liverpool, on Sunday 12 October 2014. rising chain of symmetrically-constructed chords. After a brief return to the first theme, a vivace section begins. Mainly in a lopsided 7/4 rhythm, it builds in The Rodewald Concert Society expresses its gratitude intensity before relaxing into a calm, seemingly to Arts Council England, the Rushworth Trust and the improvised duo between oboe and first violin, over a following for contributions to the Sounds Creative silvery chord on high harmonics. After a climactic scheme, which supported this commission. section, the vivace material returns; the movement ends with the cello rising higher and higher, finally Joseph P Connell passing the melody to the oboe. Elspeth Dutch Paul Herbert Second movement Alan Howe I contacted the families of both dedicatees and asked Alan Jones them to let me know some of the dedicatees’ favourite Tom & Ellen Lyon bits of oboe music, with a view to integrating some David Norris elements into the composition. Lots of pieces were Lesley Smith suggested, but I settled on Ich habe genug (I have Richard Waller enough), a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach with a 13 anonymous subscribers beautiful and prominent oboe part. The chords which underpin the first section of Ich habe genug form the www.ianstephens.net framework of the Passacaglia second movement. The @ian_composer movement is in seven sections, with each section in a

Oboe Quintet commissioned by the Rodewald Concert Society in memory of Monica Nurnberg and David Dutch Ian Stephens I

Senza misura q = c.80                    Oboe                                 p mf p

5 1 Agitato q = 104 2                                                      f p mf ff p f                                                        pp  f p mf ff p f

                                               pp   fp mf   ffp f                                                    pp   fp mf   ffp f                                                    pp fp mf ffp f

16 rit. Meno mosso q = 96 3                                          3    mf p                                                     mf p                                           3   mf p                                                mf p

  5                                          mf p 3   

Ian Stephens © 2014 www.ianstephens.net 2

25 3 rit. A tempo q = 96                                          3  3   mp mf mp non vib. 3                                mp  mf mp pp non vib. 3                                   mp mf mp pp                                                    3 6 mp mf 6 mp

32 4 Vivace q = 152                                                        mp mf pizz.                                              p mf p

        

         

           

39 5                                             ff arco                                   ff                                       ff                                                    ff                                                        ff        3

44                                    3    p         3 3      f pizz.                                pp f p

pizz.                             pp f p arco pizz.                                           pp f 4 pizz.                                      pp f p

52 6            mp 

arco                                     mp            f

                   ff    p           

             p

arco                        f p pp

57                                                   f  3 ff mf

                                      mf       f               ff mf arco arco 3                                                   fmf p mf ff mf   sul C arco                                        p f mf    ff mf arco pizz.                                   mf p f ffmf   4

7 63                              ff mf                                  mf f  mp

                      f  p mp

                        f p  mp                                f mf p mp 

69 8                                       f mf pp non vib.                               pp

non vib.                            mf   pp  non vib.                       mf pp pizz. arco                       mf         p  

74                                               mp fp

 3 3    3                                    mp fp                                          mp fp                                     3 3 3 mp fp

3 3 3                                 mp fp 5

81 9                                                     pp f mp 3               f p                         pp f p 3                             f p pp                        f p pp

10 Quasi senza misura q = c.80 90 6 5 3 6                                     p mf mp p pp 3                   p                p                  

            

               

98 11 6                         mf f   3 3 3                                       3           f 3  mf                    

           

                6 13

104 12 Più mosso q = 96 7                                       p 7         f   pizz.                             p         f pizz.                             f  pizz.                              f  pizz.                               f 

112 6 6    3                                      ff f  arco            

                          f arco           

                            f  arco                     

       

            f arco                                         f

14 117                                                         ff  6  7 p pizz. 3                                                               ff p pizz. 3                                                             ff     p pizz.                                                3           p ff     pizz.                                                            3          p ff     7

15 Vivace q = 152  124  3 3 3                                      mf  p f arco  3 3 3 6                          mf   p   mf f p arco 3 3 3 pizz.                               mf   ff  arco 3 3 3                     p f mf   arco                                   3 3 3 pp f mf

131                                                         mp        mf   

             

                  p               

sul C          p

                mp 16 135                                              f        3  ff mf ff                                          f      mf ff mf  f

arco 3                                                    f mf f mf  ff mf   f pizz.  arco                               3        f mf f mf  ff mf f

3                                       3        mf mf ffmf    f 8

141 17                         p mp 

                         p mp mf

                   mp       p

                             mf p mp                          mf

146 18 rit.                                              3  mf  mf                              

                                mf  

                                       mf f                                            mf

A tempo q = 152 150 Meno mosso q = 124 rit.                     pp p mf

                   pp p mf

                                      pp p   mf

3                                        3 pp  mp p 3 mf                                                                pp p mf