Etude for Oboe and Tape

by Sally Reid, composer, ASCAP (1983)

Program Notes:

The Etude for Oboe and Tape (1983) is one of six studies for soloist and digitally generated tape. (The others are for alto saxophone, trumpet in C, violin, piano and English horn.) In each the solo line appears against an electronic background derived from the melodic material of the solo combined with individual digital motives characteristic of the various electronic instruments. This etude explores unusual register transfers and intervals for the oboe. The soloist responds to cues from the tape, placing the solo passages freely within the available sound spaces, often extending the gesture into the following tape expression. The result is a sort of sound sculpture, conceptually more present in space than in time.

The original realization of the work was done on the pre-MIDI, micro-computer based alphaSyntauri system, an eight-bit, multi-timbral system which utilized the sixteen digital oscillators of the Mountain Computer cards designed for use in Apple II microcomputers. The score was generated using a crude (by today's standards) first generation computer notation system which permitted graphic representation of taped events resembling traditional music notation, but in which passing time (rhythm) is represented spatially.

Audio

• Etude for Oboe and Tape, Marla McDaniel, soloist
• Etude for Oboe and Tape (1983, tape only)

Selected Performance History:

• March, 1993 - Performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape by Cynthia Green-Libby at Southwest Missouri State University.
• April 24, 1985 - Performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape by Matthew Sullivan, North/South Consonance, New York premiére.
• October, 1985 - Performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape on a recital of works by the composer at Abilene Christian University.
• March 9, 1984, Performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape by Kenneth Futterer at the University of Arkansas during a Region VI meeting of the American Society of University Composers (ASUC).
• November, 1983 - Performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape by Marla McDaniel, McMurry College.
• October, 1983 - Premiére performance of Etude for Oboe and Tape on ACU Composers Concert by Marla McDaniel.

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http://www.acu.edu/~reid/compositions/oboeetude.html
updated 3/30/99
Sally Reid, reid@acu.edu

Etude for Oboe and Tape