John Burge

Commissioner: Charles Hamann, Principal Oboist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, commissioned this solo oboe work for his CMC Centrediscs recording devoted to Canadian music for the oboe and piano that was released in 2017.

Premiere: Charles Hamann presented the premiere performance of this work at the Centrediscs CD release event, June 8, 2017, at Perez Hall, School of Music, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON.

Duration: 6 minutes

Movements:

1. Repeated Notes
2. Stationary Control
3. Double Reed Blues
4. A Flourish
5. Why I Love the Oboe
6. Disjunct Motion

Program Note: Twitter Etudes No. 2, for solo oboe, was commissioned in 2016 by Charles (Chip) Hamann, Principal Oboe of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa, Ontario) as well as being an accomplished chamber musician and teacher.  In the summer of that year Chip had been recording John Burge’s Sonata Breve No. 4, for oboe and piano, and in passing John had mentioned that he had just finished composing Twitter Etudes No. 1, for solo violin.  This violin work was composed as the test piece for the First Bader-Overton Violin Competition taking place in 2017.  When John spoke of the fun working within the constraints of creating a challenging etude with just 140 distinctive attacks, Chip immediately expressed interest in having a set for the oboe.  Having long been an admirer of Chip’s facility and musicianship, this commission opportunity was immediately inspiring and the score was delivered shortly thereafter.

Each of the six short etudes in the oboe set is given a title that in some cases reflects the technical skill demanded of the performer including: “Repeated Notes”, “Stationary Control” and “Disjunct Motion”.  Other individual titles such as, “Double Reed Blues” and “A Flourish” are more descriptive in the way they reflect the desired character or effect.  The most distinctive etude and the composer’s personal favourite is “Why I Love the Oboe”.  Many composers have repeatedly given their most beautiful romantic melodies to this instrument and this etude leans heavily on the oboe’s lyrical side in presenting a short, four-phrase melody followed by two more florid variations.  The entire set takes approximately five minutes to play and although the composer has given numbers to each etude, performers are encouraged to play them in any order or to even perform just a few at a time.

Twitter Etudes No. 2 was recorded by Charles Hamann, oboe, on the CMC Centrediscs two-CD set entitled, Canadian Works for Oboe and Piano.  Sample or purchase the recording on ITunes.