Thea Musgrave decided to write some pieces for pairs of instruments partly for use in teaching and partly for the fun of hearing two of the same instruments performing together as they do in Mozart or Haydn Symphonies.

Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet Op.43 (1922) for Flute Oboe Clarinet French Horn and Bassoon.Parts available: WH30739A

Elegia is a small piece for Oboe and Piano accompaniment by Nino Rota. Really lyrical its medium difficulty will enable intermediate players to execute it for a recital or for a contest. This lovely work is quite slow nostalgic at some points and ends up on a perfect harmony between the two instruments. Nino Rota (1911-1979) is an Italian composer and conductor particularly known for his works on film music. He also composed 5 ballets 10 orchestras as well as numerous music chamber works including a string concerto.

Philip Herbert is a British composer based in Leicester. This delightful and wistful piece started life as a dance project with choreographer Henry Oguike and was first performed in its entirety in 2013 in Leicester as part of Black History Month. This slightly abridged version gives the Oboe a singing line of great beauty. Herbert himself notes that he combines 'hypnotic and expressive melismas in the melodic line supported by the accompaniment supplied by the Piano which draws on the influence of minimalism and chordal figuration that is to be found in some of the keyboard preludes of J.S. Bach'. The E flat section in the middle providessome contrast and the delicately ornamented ending brings the piece to a calm conclusion. The metronome mark should be carefully noted so that the piece floats and flows nicely without getting stuck and indulgent.

This was composed in 1962. The first movement is classically structured with a gracefully contoured first subject a forceful ensuing idea and a murmurously lyrical second subject; the secondmovement generates an intensity of feeling which is the greater for the very restraint of its language; and the finale effectively introduces calm moments to offset the prevailing syncopated ebullience.

Trio For Flute Oboe And Piano by Lennox Berkeley: Prelude Allegro moderato Moderato Fugue. To the Sylvan Trio

Work for Oboe Violin Viola and Cello. Parts available: CH56341.This quartet was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and written in the autumn of 1967. It is dedicated to Lady Norton and is the second of LennoxBerkeley’s three works written with the oboist the late Janet Craxton in mind the other two being his Sonatina OP 61 and Sinfonia Concertante OP 84.The work begins with a fairly extended introduction leading without a breakinto an Allegro. The whole composition is based on the internal of a third (sometime major sometimes minor) which is heard in the opening phrase of the introduction and again in the main theme of the Allegro though here in atotally different context. The allegro is in more or less traditional sonata form. The middle movement is a kind of Scherzo growing out of a rhythmical figure for the strings and a rapid arpeggio (major and minor chords) forthe oboe. This is a Presto; a more relaxed middle section corresponding to the Trio in a classical work is followed by a much shortened version of the Scherzo. The last movement is brief but very slow all four instrumentstaking up in turn a gently rocking figure that moves to and fro between two notes always a major or minor third apart. The music becomes more animated but returns to the opening figure and dies away each instrument droppingout one after the other leaving the cello alone in the last bar.

In Greek mythology Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion King of Thebes. She unwisely boasted to Leto about her many sons and daughters. Leto who only had two children Apollo and Artemis was angered. As punishment Apollo slew Niobe's sons and Artemis her daugters. Out of pity for Niobe's inconsolable grief the Gods changed her into a rock in which form she continued to weep.In this work for solo Oboe and tape the solo Oboe takes the part of Niobe bitterly lamenting her murdered children. The tape with the distant high voices and the slow tolling bells (and later gong) is intended to provide an evocative and descriptiveaccompaniment.Niobe was commissioned by the Park Lane Group. The first performance took place at the Park Lane Concerts in January 1988.

An important and significant work written in London in 1942 and now published for the first time: 60 years later! The first movement is tuneful and full of those surprises Malcolm loves to introduce in his music. There are no shortage of jazz inspired ideas coloured always by that Arnold 'edge'. The second movement is a fiendish scherzo - full of amazing cross rhythms and of immense energy. The final movement is a March and the most emotionally charged. Clearly very strongly anti-war - severe and angry dissonances mocking fanfares angular and brutal melodic and rhythmic shapes. 'A very playable work...with plenty of interest for all the players. A greataddition to the repertoire!' AWTGrade: 8