Michael James Oberhauser
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Four Poems (2010)

chamber piece for flute, viola, and percussion

or for flute, viola, and piano

Duration: 16:00

I. Sonnet - 2:00
II. Limerick - 1:00
III. Haiku - 5:00
IV. Free Verse - 8:00

Notes and Recording info

Recorded at the premiere performance of the flute/viola/piano version in the Perceptions recital on 4 June, 2010 at the Artist's Inn Residence in Washington, DC.

Cristina Verderese, flute
Henry Valoris, viola
Roc Lee, piano
Michael Oberhauser, conductor

I wrote Haiku first, at the urging of my composition teacher Dr. Andrew Earle Simpson, to round out my portfolio a bit more. While I was at Catholic University I had written mostly vocal music, so I needed to do a little more instrumental music to round out my resume. Haiku was premiered April 3, 2009 with Sophia Musleh on flute, Julian Rieder on percussion, and Daniel McCarthy on viola. I liked how it came out, so I decided to write a few other movements to go with it. 

When all four movements were finished in the original flute/viola/percussion arrangement, I decided to set up a performance. The particular space for the "Perceptions" recital that my friends Kyle Gullings, Roc Lee, and I set up (a bed and breakfast) was not particularly conducive to bringing in a vibraphone, but the space did have a nice piano. I arranged Haiku and Free Verse for flute/viola/piano for that occasion. I may go back and arrange Sonnet and Limerick for the same instruments, but the percussion parts in those are slightly more idiomatic.

I. Sonnet

II. Limerick

III. Haiku

I mapped out this piece to have a tertiary form with the basic 5:7:5 ratio, with the whole piece being around 5 minutes. These large sections are differentiated by tempo. Within each section there's another ABA' in a 5:7:5 ratio, but these mini-sections are separated by thematic material and instrumentation. Some of this formal set-up was removed, though, when I was editing the piece - I sacrificed the form a little bit here and there for musicality purposes. What I ended up with is a largely atmospheric, meditative piece.

IV. Free Verse

For this piece, I picked a handful of poems that I liked, arranged them in an order that seemed to be thematically pleasing, and set them as if it were vocal music - but set them for the instruments instead. The intention was to have very little transitional material between "songs." When I was finished, I edited the entire piece to make it more musical, as I did with Haiku. This piece ended up being rather long, but I think it works because of the several different moods in this movement. It feels like several movements in itself, just with no pause between them.