Expert: Pat G - 8/23/2009

Question
QUESTION: Can you please tell me what was the piece of music written by a composer (English I think) †o mark the ending and winning of the first world war.
It was a sad peace played by an Oboe.

ANSWER: G'day.

I'll have to do a little research on that one. I'll get back to you when I know more.

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I am back. This may be a difficult thing to track down. If you can tell me more, it might help. Was it a solo piece for oboe?

So far, I found the following list of pieces using oboe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oboe#Notable_classical_works_featuring_the_oboe

But none of them jumps out at me. A good many of these composers lived before WWI.

I also used WWI, oboe, victory as search terms. I found some sheet music sites, but none of those pieces seemed to be relevant.

Here's one thought: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f8EQOP3ErM But there are two problems. It was apparently written a little bit early, and it is an orchestral piece with bass oboe, so it doesn't exactly fit.

We may have to kick this one back and forth a few times to find it.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Pat,
Yes just Oboe.
Many thanks

Colin

Answer
Hi, Colin,

Well, I am at a loss so far. I didn't come across a single piece just for oboe!

I'll try a few more things and get back to you.

Pat

PS I want to bounce a few ideas off you. Edgar Varèse wrote a solo piece for flute, called Density 21.5. Nowadays, given the cross pollination that is going on, I wonder if someone might have played the piece on the oboe. It certainly comes across as a melancholy piece, at least to me. I am not aware that Varèse ever wrote anything specifically for solo oboe, though. Ligeti also wrote things along those lines, though I am not familiar with any solo pieces he wrote. Penderecki and Arvo Pärt are other possibilities. You might want to see what you can find of these.

What general style would you say the piece was?