“Stomp Box” was composed in an afternoon, out of necessity for a duet that didn’t exist. I was approached by fellow oboist Dr. Melissa Sassaman about performing in the upcoming and recurring variety show, “The Encyclopedia Show, Arizona”. Since the show involves a myriad of artists performing their interpretation of each month’s theme, I thought it would be fun to write a modern duet for that month’s theme: ‘The Future.’ After pondering about the ‘The Future’ of classical music, I realized that I would be totally fine with a singularity of classical and popular music, much like the singularity of robots and humans, which turned out to be a heavy part of the Encyclopedia Show that month. (2026 edit: please, for the love of all that is holy, make the robots go away.)
The sections of this piece are modeled after pedals, or ‘stomp boxes,’ that guitarists use to modify their tone during a performance. The effects used in this piece are:
I. Delay - delay pedals take the sound that a musician produces, and repeat it identically later in time. This entire section is one line of music repeated exactly a half note after itself. Neither part is more important, and the tempos are mostly suggestions. It should sound fun but never difficult to play.
II. Loop - loop pedals are traditionally used to accompany one’s self in a solo performance. Player 1 will play a basic phrase, then play other phrases over the first which are all ‘looped’ on repeat. This pattern continues until a substantial backing track is built by Player 2, which Player 1 can then solo over. Measures 57-81 can be partially or completely improvised and extended by the 1st player, arriving at the pause in bar 65 at the duo’s discretion. Player two's “bass line” from measure 49 onwards is played forte. At measure 53, additional (marked) notes added to the loop are played piano throughout, while the bass line melody continues at forte
III. Fuzzbox - fuzz/distortion pedals are used to add an overdriven fuzz to the soloists sound. Here, the 2nd player should perform a rapid tremolo/shade trill over each pitch when they play the melody starting at bar 108. The pitch of each note should not shift, but the tone should. Each player should experiment with their instrument to find their favorite fuzzy sound effect. (Players may choose to create tremolo effects with unused keys, or flutter tongue/growl/sing through entire passages instead.)
IV. Pedalboard - a tasteful mix of all the pedals, because guitarists usually perform with more than one pedal at a time. Here, the previous 3 effects are used all at once, leading to a rather chaotic finale.
The first measure of “Stomp Box” is taken from the final section of G.P. Telemann’s “Canonic Sonata no. 1.” Since neither piece is very long, audiences often appreciate hearing them back to back. Music has changed a lot in 273 years.