Sextet

Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and cello

Year: 2009

Duration: 7 minutes

Program Note:
Sextet is a work for three strings and three woodwinds.  It was composed during my senior year of college for the Argento Ensemble, a contemporary group based out of New York City.  With this piece, I was interested in creating an emotional, musical narrative that focused on several transformations of a lyrical melody.  At the outset of the piece, the oboe plays the melody unadulterated.  However, as the piece progresses, the melody is interrupted by passages of greater dissonance and tension, creating a sense of unease.  Moments of the melody are constantly juxtaposed against sections of instability.  At the end, the melody fractures under the tension, leaving only the aftermath and an uncanny reminder of what it once was.  Because of the emotion and drama of the piece, it easily can conjure specific, tangible image.  Due to this, I titled the piece Sextet with the hope that the audience would supply their own mental images.