PROGRAM NOTE

Last modified 28 April 2025

JOURNEY (2020-2023) 18"

for oboe soloist and chamber orchestra

by Roger Reynolds

JOURNEY involves the intermingling of two extended melodic lines, one of which begins the work, and the other of which concludes it. I began work on this piece in the way I often do. The title came early, and I searched my dictionary collection for associated meanings, finding more implications than expected. For example, it can mean, in wartime, “a day’s march”. It is “a trip without regard for duration”, “an excursion or expedition, especially for some distance”, “a set of experiences that someone has over a period of time, especially when they change the person in some way.” I particularly liked the implications of distance from a starting point and of being changed by the process.

Discussions with the commissioning oboist Jacqueline Leclair led to a detailed and systematic exploration of the normative 47-tone range of her instrument. Our aim was to identify the number of fingerings and other non-standard excitation strategies that could be reliably used over the instrument’s entire compass. As expected, the range of options available varied widely, and settling on primary, secondary, and tertiary pitch groups followed. This process rhymed with the notion of explicit units (of distance, time, arrays).

An initial line (O) was drafted and then optimized interactively with Jackie. An alternative version (M) followed and was similarly optimized collaboratively as a metaphoric “mirror” of the first. These were conceived, respectively as materials that would begin the work, “O”, and also end it, “M”.

The two linear forms elicit various imagined “environments” to be manifested by the accompanying chamber orchestra, and through which the soloist passes, either alone or with one companion or more. A 6-note chord relentlessly repeats every 45 seconds (though in markedly different instantiations) throughout the central, accompanied portion of the concerto, marking the stages of the journey.

The soloist has a repertoire of multi-phonics that reference the organization of the basic pitch structure of the work, and they are both incorporated into the recurring melodic lines (both O and M forms) while arousing, occasionally, imitative sonorities from the orchestra such that the oboe traveler is both changed and also changes. While the soloist travels, alone or, sequentially, in duo, trio, or quartet guise, they constantly encounter new sonic environments and characters (courtesy of the chamber orchestra). Their evolving melodic and rhythmic essence is the thread that binds the various episodes making up a communal  JOURNEY.

The actual composition of this work spanned our shared Covid period and this, of course, carried its own set of implications, including the reconsiderations that followed a period of several years in which a full sketch lay waiting completion.

The Ekkozone/Divine Art Recordings Group CD of JOURNEY won the 2024 Danish Radio P2 Album of the Year.

– Roger Reynolds