Pq2 ... (2014) for string quartet and piano

by Thomas Oboe Lee

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more

	1.	Pq2 ... Moderato, TRIO 05:03
	2.	Pq2 ... Adagio 03:46
	3.	Pq2 ... Tsiaj 1, Allegro 03:09
	4.	Pq2 ... Tsiaj 2, Prestissimo 01:22
	5.	Pq2 ... Adagio 03:20

about

Program notes.

I met Lila Brown a year ago when she and members of the Boston Conservatory faculty performed my “Octet in D, opus 144” (2012) at Seully Hall. Lila told me she had a summer festival in Salem, NY, and wondered if I would like to write a piece for her. I said sure. Just as in Hollywood, you never say no. At first Lila asked me if I would like to write a companion piece for Anton Webern’s Saxophone Quartet. I said sure!!! One thing led another and somehow I ended up agreeing to write a piano quintet for her.

I wrote my “first" piano quintet in 1988 for the Apple Hill Chamber Players. That was not the usual quintet of a piano and string quartet. The Schubert “Trout” quintet was my model: piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. I titled that work, “Piano Quintet ... apple strudel” (1988). At that time I was a huge fan of the Entenmann’s Apple Strudel. I imagined the piano being encased/surrounded by the four string instruments.

My first “real “ piano quintet was written for the Formosa Quartet and pianist Tammy Lum. They premiered the work at Nyack College during the spring of 1988. My current piano quintet (no. 2) is titled “Pq2 ...” (2014). It is a work in five movements.

I. Moderato ... Trio
II. Adagio ...
III. Tsiaj 1 ... Allegro
IV. Tsiaj 2 ... Prestissimo!
V. Adagio

What’s tsiaj? I got this from Charles E. Ives. The title of the middle movement of his Piano Trio is “TSIAJ.” It’s an acronym of “This Scherzo is a joke.”

Enjoy!

credits

released December 18, 2014

Markus Placci, violin
Saul Bitrán, violin
Lila Brown, viola
Jan Müller-Szeraws, cello
Sally Pinkas, piano

Music by Thomas Oboe Lee

Antonio Oliart, audio engineer and editor

Recorded at WGBH Fraser Studio in Brighton, Massachusetts
November 24, 2014

Photo credit: Thomas Oboe Lee

Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, Giampietrino's "Death of Cleopatre"
Musée National du Louvre
Paris, France

© Departed Feathers Music, Inc. - BMI

YouTube link: youtu.be/lOAueSLiSsc

license

about

Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

thomasoboelee.com

contact / help

Contact Thomas Oboe Lee

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Thomas Oboe Lee, you may also like:

Strings on Land
by Ellen Tsai

This elegantly composed chamber album from Ellen Tsai has a playful feel, almost like the soundtrack to a storybook. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 23, 2022
go to album
Decir
by Francisco del Pino

Argentine composer and guitarist Francisco del Pino achieves a stunning art-song hybrid on the first album to be released under his own name. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 19, 2021
go to album
Silhouettes
by Justina Jaruseviciute

A stirring set of chamber music from this composer from Berlin, which seem to capture hope & sadness at once. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 5, 2021
go to album
Cistern
by Jherek Bischoff

featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 30, 2016
go to album
Find Sound
by Shards

Rippling electronics bubble up under gorgeous choral vocals on an LP that feels blissful and transcendent. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 29, 2019
go to album
Black Mountain Songs
by Brooklyn Youth Chorus

The celebrated youth chorus performs songs commissioned for members of The National and Arcade Fire. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 17, 2017
go to album
Scatter My Ashes
by Octet Ensemble and William Susman

“Scatter My Ashes” exists at a crossroads between multiple styles, but emerges with something rich, textural, ambient, and riveting. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 7, 2022
go to album