Charlotte Ethington, oboe
Doctoral Recital Series
Katzin Concert Hall I November 14, 201917:30 pm

Program
Marin Marais
(1656-1728)

Les Folies d'Espagne
Alex Duke, cello
Hyewon Rina Kim, harpsichord

Makoto Shinohara
(b. 1931)

Obsession pour hautbois et piano

Pierre Sancan
(1916-2008)

Sonatine pour hautbois et piano
I Modere
II Andante
III Presto
. Intermission
Six Etudes pour hautbois
I Hotel des Roches noires a Trouville (Claude Monet, 1870)
II Potager et arbres en fleurs, printemps, Pontoise (Camille Pissaro, 1877)
III Boulevard des Capucines (Claude Monet, 1873)
IV Sentier dans les bois (Auguste Renoir, 1874)
V Scene de plage--Ciel d'orage (Eugene Boudin, 1864)
VI Le ballet espagnol (Edouard Manet, 1862)

Alyssa Morris
(b. 1984)

Four Personalities
Yellow
White
Blue
Red
Program Notes on reverse side

School of Music

ASU o;;g;�a·
Arizona State University

Gilles Silvestrini
(b. 1961)

the Arts

Program Notes

The first half of tonight's program consists of three pieces of music performed in the mid-late twentieth century at the annual contests
(concours) of the Paris Conservatory. These contests first began in the late 1700s, and students who received a first prize were
considered ready, and indeed required, to graduate. Throughout the nineteenth century, the vast majority of the concours pieces for
oboe were written by the conservatory's oboe professors and were generally very similar in form and style. Through much of the
twentieth century a different composer was commissioned every year to write a new piece of oboe music for the concours, and from
year to year twentieth century oboe students who performed in the concours were required to play in a much wider variety of styles
than were students of the nineteenth century. The three concours pieces that will be performed tonight provide a snapshot of this
variety.
Though composed in the Baroque era, Les folies d'Espagne by Marin Marais was selected as a concours piece in 1995 along with
Gilbert Amy's Jeux, a contemporary piece for solo oboe. Les folies d'Espagne consists of 32 couplets based on a main theme; tonight,
we will perform 16 of these. Though Marais originally published this music in his Second Book of Pieces for the Viol (1701), he
intended for it to be played on a variety of instruments including both strings and winds.
Makoto Shinohara, now known for his electronic music and for blending Wes tern and Japanese music, was commissioned to write
Obsession for the 1960 concours. This piece contains a few main themes that each become more and more "obsessive" as they
develop, evoking emotions of brooding anguish and frenzied hysteria. A climax of screaming high notes precedes the return of the
opening motive, which brings us back to the same emotional place where the piece began. The final notes sound inconclusive, perhaps
suggesting that the "obsession" has not ended.
Pierre Sancan wrote his Sonatine for the 1957 concours, soon after joining the Paris Conservatory faculty as a piano professor. This
Sonatine is among the few pieces of his that are widely known outside of France. The variety of characters present throughout this
piece make it a delight to play. The first movement alternates between sounding mysterious, playful, and adamant; the second
movement is contemplative, unsettled, melancholy; the cheeky third movement ends with a resetting of the main theme from
movement one.
Both pieces on the second half of the program were written by oboists. Gilles Silvestrini won first prize in the Paris Conservatory
concours in 1985, the same year he finished writing the first draft of his Six Etudes pour hautbois. (He fully completed the work in
1997.) Silvestrini wrote these etudes as musical depictions of famous impressionist paintings.
I. Hotel des Roches noires a Trouville: Listen for the flags waving in the wind; the sounds of ocean waves; the conversations and
laughter of the hotel guests; the wispy clouds floating in the sky.
II. Potager et arbres enjleurs, printemps, Pontoise (Garden and trees in bloom, spring, Pontoise): Listen for the vitality of new
life in the spring; light raindrops; the sounds of nature in a garden.
III. Boulevard des Capucines: One of four grands boulevards in Paris.
IV. Sentier dans /es bois (Trail in the woods)
V. Scene de plage-Ciel d'orage: Not based on one particular painting, but on "a combination of two types of scenes (beach
scenes and stormy skies) commonly painted by Eugene Boudin around 1864" (Zoller, Louisiana State University Doctoral
Dissertation, 2011).
VI. Le ballet espagnol (The Spanish ballet)
Alyssa Morris premiered Four Personalities (2007) during her senior recital at Brigham Young University. She has since established
an international reputation as both an oboist and a composer. Below are her program notes for this piece, which is based on the
Hartman Personality Test.
YELLOW-Yellow is fun loving. The joy that comes from doing something just for the sake of doing it is what motivates and
drives yellow.
WHITE-White is a peacekeeper. White is kind, adaptable, and a good listener. Though motivated by peace, white struggles with
indecisiveness.
BLUE-Blue brings great gifts of service, loyalty, sincerity, and thoughtfulness. Intimacy, creating relationships, and having
purpose is what motivates and drives blue.
RED-Motivated by power, red is aggressive and assertive. Red is visionary, confident, and proactive.

School of Music

J&l o;g�dthe Arts
Arizona State University