"To mention just a handful of composers and their works would involve neglecting many incredible compositions..."
The third article in James Turnbull's series exploring 20th and 21st century British oboe repertoire
This is in many way the hardest facet of the British oboe and cor anglais repertoire to curate. To mention just a handful of composers and their works would involve neglecting many incredible compositions that deserve prominence. One aspect to mention is a selection of composers who wrote numerous times for the oboe or cor anglais. Such examples include Benjamin Britten, Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Gordon Jacob, William Alwyn, Lennox Berkeley, Stephen Dodgson, Robert Saxton, Michael Berkeley, and Rob Keeley.
A large body of music for solo oboe and solo cor anglais without piano also now exists. Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid have become a crucial cornerstone of the solo oboe repertoire.
There are also growing numbers of compositions for oboe and tape such as Thea Musgrave’s Niobe. Further contributions to the solo oboe and cor anglais repertoire include music by Paul Patterson, David Knotts, Gordon Jacob, Paul Reade, Tansy Davies, John Casken, Judith Bingham, Kim Ashton, Richard Rodney Bennett, and Peter Maxwell Davies.
Read the other parts of the series here: [INTRO], [FIRST ARTICLE], [SECOND ARTICLE]