Three Vignettes

for flute, oboe and piano
(2010)

The score of Three Vignettes can be purchased from Sheet Music Plus.
Recorded performances of Three Vignettes can be heard at the following links:
I - Conflicting Interest
II - Drifting Away
III - Breaing Free

These are short inventive character pieces that, in some places, also have a more sincere emotional depth. Each one captures a mood, or the essence of a situation. “Conflicting Interest” is based on a situation in which one person’s attention is divided between two different interests. Musically, this conflict is created by having the flute and oboe play in seemingly different tempos and meters. The second vignette, “Drifting Away”, was written for a promising former student who unexpectedly died during her first semester of graduate school. A series of pitches that leads to the note A at the end of this movement, which can be thought of as the goal of her final quiet journey. The title “Breaking Free” describes the feeling people get when they work through a problem or have a realization that seems to set them mentally or emotionally free. Certain rhythm and pitch structures control this movement until it finally breaks free with a moment of rhythmic chaos near the end.

(duration ca. 11 minutes)