Spring Forward - The Final Piece!

I’m still in absolute awe how many beautiful places are tucked away throughout the world. This beautiful spot is located at Bridal Veil Falls, just outside of Portland.

I’m so excited to finally share more about this substantial work commissioned by Colton Sprenkle for doubling wind soloist and string quartet!! There is so much to talk about, so let’s dive right in!

Colton, a woodwind extraordinaire, actually met me a few years ago when he was in the Pittsburg State University Wind Ensemble. PSU premiered one of my most substantial works—a twenty-minute work for two singers and wind ensemble—and I was even able to give a small masterclass to a few of their composition students. It was wonderful to connect with Colton again, now as an individual collaborator, for another ambitious work! Colton is currently majoring in multiple wind instruments, and wanted a substantial work to showcase both his oboe and bassoon chops—and I was ecstatic to take on the challenge! We decided to collaborate on a 12-minute, multi-movement work to feature both instruments with string quartet accompaniment.

Inspiration takes root…

Image by Angèle Kamp via Unsplash

Colton and I quickly found we both really loved plants, and it didn’t take long to determine each movement’s topic. The three movements, Herbs, Cycads, and Succulents, include inspiration from some of our favorite plants and plant types (for some reason, all of them also have a relationship with heat—herbs used in cooking, cycads and palms found in tropical areas, and succulents being found most commonly in deserts). The title for the whole work, Efflorescence, was not only appropriate for its relationship to plants and springtime (efflorescence meaning to “bloom,” or to “burst forth”), but for Colton’s emergence as an outstanding wind performer.

Image by David Clode via Unsplash

For each movement, we agreed there would be at least one switch—this way, even if he is only able to program one movement in the future, he would still be able to feature his playing for both instruments. I wanted to make sure each movement had a very distinct sound profile, so that the musical abilities of both the bassoon and oboe could be explored fully—both would have the chance to be lyrical, technical, expressive, textural, groovy, and facile throughout the work. Colton really loves the lower register of the oboe and the upper register of the bassoon, so I was really excited to explore these ranges of both instruments. While I have written for strings a lot, I have not had much experience writing for string quartet. I was really excited to dive in to this ensemble to try new-to-me sounds and textures—and study some contemporary repertoire to see what other composers have explored recently for string quartet!

Image by Yen Vu via Unsplash

You can read about each movement in detail below with the accompanying MIDI recordings, or you can just listen to the playlist at the link here!

Herbs

For this first movement, I really wanted to capture a huge variety of textures and colors—showcasing the oboe and bassoon’s capacity to operate in multiple ways while also capturing a large array of different herbs. The opening begins with sizzling in the strings, the oboe emerging out of the texture in a simple melodic line.

The strings work their way out of the sizzling trills to accompany the oboe as the opening section comes to a close. Suddenly the oboe leaps and dances, the strings re-entering with a percolating pizzicato that starts to trade gestures with the oboe. Eventually the group works itself into a soaring, chorus-like section of high-pitched calls. While the upper strings return to similar material (now col legno), the oboe’s minor iteration of the melody gives way to a series of trill-like runs in the cello—simmering up and down.

The soloist leaves the texture to switch to bassoon as the strings turn to a lusher, more ensemble-oriented section of strong voicings and sweeping glissandos. The leaping figure from before returns, but now in the bassoon! The strings, while still playing staccato gestures, now employ a scratch-tone color to give the material an extra edge. The bassoon starts to dance and twirl more wildly as the strings provide a driving groove.

The syncopated rhythm serves as a pivot to a slower tempo, the strings returning to the sizzling gestures from before—but now astronomically high, slowly working their way down.

The bassoon continues to vocalize as the strings settle into a sustain texture that brings different harmonies to the forefront. As the strings fade out, the bassoon begins a solo that acts as a bridge to the next movement.

Cycads

The ascending trill-like cello gesture from the previous movement served as the basis for this movement—the overall goal was to create musical breezes and gusts while also capturing the strong, rough texture of a cycad’s trunk. The bassoon, carrying over from the previous movement, starts to ornament in increasingly trill-like manners, as short trill figures appear in isolation in the strings. The bassoon runs up to a high C as the cello trills on its lowest notes. The upper strings at 23 employ a harmonic flutter (based on this brilliant passage in Sabina, from Andrew Norman’s incredible work, The Companion Guide to Rome). This haunting, breezy texture gradually shifts into wild glissandos while the bassoon gradually falls downward to its lowest register.

At 32, the strings take over as the soloist switches back to oboe. Here, the strings hocket and scurry up and down the length of their range, mixing both contrapuntal textures with soaring melodic moments.

The final quarter note march up the register hangs in the air only to be dropped to the bottom of the oboe. The oboe picks up the sixteenth drive of the previous section, interspersing its lyrical sustains with bouncy turns and quick embellishments; here the strings recall the earlier commentary from the opening bassoon solo, but with much more chatter as each voice is paired.

The oboe soars upwards as the strings work themselves back into a sustain that builds into 61. The build hasn’t finished, however, as 61 sees the oboe’s stretching melodic line over the strings continued trills, scurries, and hockets. The climactic ascent into 70 builds to a dramatic pause just before the final section at 72. The strings wind their way down and up multiple times as the oboe becomes part of the string texture. The final ascent emerges as a pizzicato, dropping down to a lushly-voiced plucked chord to punctuate the end of the movement. The pizzicato here proves to be a hint at what’s to follow in the final movement.

Succulents

Writing this movement was extremely difficult for me, but also very rewarding. Throughout the movement I tried to capture the vibrant colors, fractal structure, and general prickly-ness of succulents—it makes sense that such beautifully complicated plants ended up being such a challenge to write for! The piece was difficult to write because I wound up using a lot of tiny details—from new-to-me techniques and nearly-neurotic dynamic shading, to working with wonky harmonies and mixed meter sections; not to mention working in multiple switches between the oboe and bassoon. I also wanted to call back to earlier movements to give the whole piece a cohesive feeling.

One of the new-to-me techniques appears in the first few measures of the movement: the bow buzz. While I can’t recall the exact pieces in which I saw this particular technique appear, I’ve never forgotten the sound as the musicians carefully placed the tail end of their bow upon the string—a quiet-but-aggressive buzz that provided a playfully menacing energy; it was the perfect effect for this section of the piece! The combination of this bow buzz, the harmonically-ambiguous pizzicato in the upper strings, and the percussive knocking in the cello help to create a dry and prickly texture over which the oboe can freely vocalize. At 18, the viola stops being part of the accompaniment to play in harmony with the oboe. The wonky changes in meter give these sections an uneasy, almost wandering feeling, even as the melody propels forward.

This section ends with a final snap pizzicato accompanied by a gliss (sounding a bit like a string breaking!). While a pizzicato texture continues, the meter is more consistent, allowing the ensemble to open up into a more easily flowing texture. The strings work themselves back into a lush arco melody before returning to the flowing material, now largely with bowed sounds rather than only pizzicato. This not only makes the section sound richer, but helps prepare the ear for the strings-only section at 56.

While a few textures from the opening return (bow buzz, pizz chords and arpeggios, playful hockets, etc.), the general mood is much more subdued and introspective—using similar melodic material the opening of Cycads. The opening material returns, now distributed between a wider variety of colors; arco and pizz punctuated by col legno and tremolo, small and large glisses, and playful counterpoint pepper this return as the bassoon now joins the strings.

The bassoon recalls part of its opening from Cycads before the strings catapult into a new section, now introducing fiddle-like gestures in the upper strings as the viola takes the melody with the bassoon. Dramatic runs in the bassoon are echoed in the strings, giving way to brief moments of a singing melodic line before returning to a largely pizzicato texture. The bassoon recalls the cascading runs from the oboe melody earlier on as the strings pluck away in a groove-based accompaniment.

The strings build as the soloist makes a quick transition back to oboe. The oboe re-enters, picking up the flowing lines from before only to suddenly fall back into the mixed meter texture from the beginning.

This is short-lived however, as the strings return at 130 with a fiddle-inspired line, building into a frenzy that catapults dramatically upward. The bassoon re-enters, echoing this scamper upwards, only to pull the momentum back for a moment of grandeur; the strings continue on as the soloist makes a final switch, echoing both the cascade material and the lusher melodic moments from earlier in the movement.

A final ascent upwards culminates in the arrival of the oboe, who leads the charge back down the ensemble’s registers. The paired melody in measures 150-151 echo the opening section of Herbs before catapulting back to the upper register of the ensemble. The piece ends with a series of chords, re-voiced lower and lower until a final sustain that builds to a forte—ending in a final, reverberant punctuation to end the piece.

Wrap-Up

With all of the interesting challenges—working with a doubling soloist, writing new-to-me techniques into the piece, organizing the flow of material across the three movements—I really enjoyed working on this piece! I’m so grateful to Colton for reaching out to commission this substantial work, and can’t wait to share the final results with you after a few months! It definitely made me think more about how to incorporate doubling into chamber music for musicians who really love to play multiple instruments, and how to continue making my music more accessible to different types of performers.

Happy music-making everyone!