Length: 7:30

Instrumentation: oboe, cello, percussion (5.0 marimba, concert bass drum, 2 toms, 2 bongos, 2 woodblocks)

Year: 2023

Premiere performance June 2023 by Kathryn Bates, Michelle Farah, and Chris Froh through GLFCAM Bahlest Eeble Fellowship.

About the work:

As I started writing Visions in Glimpse, I spent a lot of time pondering the timbral possibilities within this unique grouping of instruments. The oboe, the cello and percussion (in this case, focused around a marimba and a multi-drum/woodblock set-up) each have an ultra-distinct voice, and I knew writing for this instrumentation could lead to challenges in creating unified blend and articulation in a way that a woodwind quintet, string quartet, or percussion ensemble do not face. So I decided to try leaning into the differences of character between each instrument. This thought-project ended up guiding a lot of the writing of the piece; I enjoyed experimenting with different combinations of instruments in similar registers (unisons and tight harmonic crunches), as well as exploiting extreme registers and timbres to create unexpected results. The audience may be as surprised as I was at how seamlessly the trio blends in certain idioms, and how the differences between the instruments shimmer and shine in others. 

The “visions” portion of the title comes from the sense of mysticism I tried to evoke in the opening, as the cello circles through droning passages and the oboe casts a spell with its long, elegant phrases – to me, it feels ominous, like a portent of the future. As the piece unfurls, it weaves in and out of modal language, and “glimpses” a variety of contrasting textures and emotions I was whisked into while writing. The differences between these contrasting sections of music should distort, sparkle and gleam in the sunlight, like looking at scenes through a shifting kaleidoscope.