Overpasses
for oboe and piano
(2023-24)
© 2024 by Tristan
Wilson (ASCAP)
Tristan Wilson (b. 2002)
Overpasses (2023-24)
Duration: c. 5.5 mins.
Premiered on April 6, 2024
Grayson Eichmeier, oboe
Gabriel Stossel, piano
Cleveland Institute of Music – Kulas Hall
Performance Note
If the juxtaposition of the 8:9 polyrhythm with the intermittent straight 16th notes in the piano part (mms. 99-105) proves too complex to perform accurately with the oboe line, the right hand rhythm can be adjusted such that it lines up more regularly with the left hand/oboe hocket.
Composer’s Note
Having grown up in as car-centric a city as Detroit, I have always been struck by the stark kind of beauty in highway overpasses and interchanges disparate roadways overlapping and intertwining before continuing on to their respective destinations. This piece attempts to capture something of what I find interesting in these structures the oboe and piano overlap, play off of one other, and occasionally coalesce before splitting off again.
This piece is also simultaneously meant as an homage to the British composer Michael Nyman, whose music I heard often growing up and which has proved to be an indelible influence on my style. Overpasses was inspired particularly by repeated listenings to Nyman’s piece Shaping the Curve, for soprano saxophone and piano. The works share many similarities, but where Nyman bases his piece on one sequence of four chords, the material in Overpasses is instead spun out of three sources (one melody and two short chord progressions) that are each developed in turn, before something approaching Nyman’s four chords makes a glowing appearance in the coda.
Overpasses lasts between five and six minutes in performance.
and piano
O
T r istan Wilson 13 5 9 Ob Oboe Ob Ob Pno. Pno. P iano Pno
ver passes for oboe
( = 160) © 2024 by T r istan Wilson (A SCAP)
Pushing ahead
30 17 22 26 Ob Ob Ob Ob Pno Pno. Pno. Pno decresc 3:2 2
34 46 42 38 Ob. Ob. Ob Ob Pno. Pno Pno. Pno. sub. ( ) marcato 3
54 60 50 57 Ob. Ob Ob Ob. Pno Pno Pno Pno cresc dim 3 3 5 3 3 3 3 5 5 = ( = 80) N N N N (N) 4
65 68 63 72 Ob Ob. Ob Ob Pno Pno Pno Pno. 5 5 3 6 6 6 6 5 6 5 3 3 = ( = 160) poco r it . 5
81 75 77 79 Ob Ob Ob. Ob. Pno Pno Pno. Pno. 3 Still w ith energ y ( = 150) 6
83 89 85 87 Ob Ob Ob Ob. Pno. Pno. Pno Pno , bring out l h 8:9 8:9 8:9 8:9 8:9 8:9 3 3 sub 7
97 91 95 93 Ob Ob Ob Ob Pno Pno Pno. Pno sub., hazy 5:6 5:6 5:6 una corda 8
101 103 99 105 Ob Ob Ob Ob Pno Pno Pno Pno , delicate ( hocket with piano l h ) , delicate; bring out r.h. 5:6 8:9 8:9 8:9 8:9 8:9 5:6 r itard. N (2 + 2 + 2 + 3) tre corde 9
omewhat
115 107 119 111 Ob Ob. Ob Ob. Pno Pno Pno Pno. , crystalline 3 5 3 3 = ( = 60)
una corda legato, almost smeary 10
S
resigned (
= 120)
122 124 128 126 Ob. Ob Ob Ob Pno. Pno. Pno. Pno 6 3 6 6 3 6 6 5 3 3 3 3 5 poco rall. a tempo tre corde 11
140 131 134 137 Ob. Ob. Ob. Ob. Pno Pno Pno Pno sub sub. 5:4 Grow ing bolder ( = 96) 12
143 152 149 146 Ob Ob. Ob. Ob Pno. Pno. Pno Pno. marc. 5:4 13
162 155 160 157 Ob. Ob Ob Ob Pno Pno. Pno Pno. 5:4 cresc al fine cresc al fine poco accel. ad lib. 14