As I was writing anatomies of fragile things, I was thinking a lot about the complex and colorful patterns on the wings of butterflies, and in the sound world of this piece I wanted to capture their intricacy and fragility. The work opens with a swirl of gently descending runs in the piano and violin, which are interrupted by a plaintive oboe melody. Distant, celestial chords emerge in the top octave of the piano, as the violin and oboe interject with tremolos and fragments of melodies. In the middle section, the falling lines from the beginning are distorted: where before they were fragile constellations of sound, now they’re now jagged and syncopated. The final section returns to the music from the beginning, and the work closes with a long, sustained harmony fading to nothing.

Premiered November 2018 by Julia Simpson, oboe, Angela Bae, violin, and Wesley Ducote, piano at Shepherd School of Music Fall Composer's Forum

anatomies of fragile things (2018) for oboe, violin, and piano

Paul Novak