In the freelancing world, there is often a lot of the same work; pick-up orchestras for the Messiah, or maybe church wedding gigs. So, I always get a little excited when something comes along that is really different, and more importantly, really fun to do.

Not that long ago, I got the chance to play with a professional vocal ensemble, and was thrilled to discover a piece for choir and oboe that I had never even heard of. I assumed that it was just some oboe accompaniment, as a lot of choral pieces are. Imagine my shock and excitement in finding out that Effinger wrote a piece (4 Pastorales) that is almost like oboe solo with choral interjections.

I totally fell in love with this piece, and had such a blast playing it. There is something so great about occasionally being the only instrumentalist. The sound of one oboe against voices is so cool, and I found there was so much I wanted to do with the music in terms of color and mood and sound. All 4 movements are really neat, but here’s the first one:

You can listen to one of the movements here