Phase Change

for oboe and stereo fixed media (2013)
written for Katherine Woolsey

This piece is inspired by the three phases of water: vapor, liquid, and solid. The oboist begins the piece without the reed in place and only the sound of pure air. An atmospheric exploration with timbral trills leads to “condensation,” in which droplets begin to form and eventually give way to a flowing stream. The final section “freezes” the music into a stark, frozen texture which contains static harmonies, glacial multiphonics, and fractured melodic lines like shards of ice. Many melodic motives in the piece come from a three-note pitch set which is inspired by the shape of the water molecule itself.

Katherine Woolsey, oboe