PAN for oboe and orchestra (2022)

When Chris Wheeler asked me to compose a piece for oboe and orchestra, the word “Pan” was in the air, and I heard it from all directions: Pandemic. Panic. Pandemonium. Panopticon. Pan. 

Pan, the legendary Greek god of the wilderness, half-human half-goat, was the son of Hermes, the trickster god of change. Pan was a tremendous musician, who mainly played pipes, and he was also an expert hunter, a shepherd, and a passionate lover. 

Though his name means “all”, he was often a solitary spirit, who wandered the forests and mountains, alone, and playing music for nymphs to dance.  When traveling through a forest, people would imagine his dark presence, somewhere hiding, and this would often evoke a crescendo of mad fear - panic.  After long woodland jaunts, Pan would nap. If he was rudely awakened, he would bellow and roar and scare people out of their wits.
 
In this piece, I invoke the shadowy spirit of Pan, and slowly crescendo towards a wild tarantella (music played to help a sick person dance out the poison). I’ve always found music to be a universal medicine – 
a panacea - and I wrote this music for oboist Chris Wheeler, and conductor Nan Washburn, and the Michigan Philharmonic, in hopes that we may all face the darkness with dance

~es

"Sometimes I forget completely what companionship is.
Unconscious and insane, I spill sad energy everywhere.
My story gets told in various ways: a romance, a dirty joke, a war, a vacancy.
Divide up my forgetfulness to any number, it will go around.
These dark suggestions that I follow, are they part of some plan?
Friends, be careful. Don’t come near me out of curiosity, or sympathy."

~Rumi (transl. Coleman Barks)

This is the recording of the electrifying premiere performance with the Michigan Philharmonic, 4/22/2023

Thanks to Toko for the fantastic cover art.

PAN for Oboe and Orchestra (2022)- Premiere Performance

Erik Santos Classical