Oboe Quartet was written to commemorate Mozart’s 250th birthday. I began to disassemble Mozart’s Oboe Quartet with the usual bag of composerly tricks, but it resisted. Backwards, upside down, or sideways, it always seemed to end up sounding like Mozart. Rebuffed, I was forced to write something new, trying instead to chase the fleeting spirits that animated Mozart—the deceptively clear and simple structure, the constantly varied repetition, the restless forward drive. The piece is in two movements, the first fast (with traces of an exposition, development, and recapitulation), the last slow.

Oboe Quartet was written at the request of The Gallery Players Association with the assistance of a grant from the Toronto Arts Council.