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The Well Tempered Oboe, for Howarth-Redgate oboe and piano

Roxburgh’s own lifetime of research, as performer and composer, into the extension of the oboe’s technical and musical capabilities were first published in his Menuhin Guide, _The Oboe_ (1977, with Leon Goossens), including treatment of multiphonics, tone variants and microtonal characteristics. A more recent collaboration with the contemporary oboe virtuoso Christopher Redgate led to the composition of a work demonstrating the capabilities of his remarkable redesign of the oboe in accommodating a wider frequency range and multiphonic capability.

While collating multiphonic charts with those of Redgate, Roxburgh discovered that four of the obtainable chords produced the opening phrase of Bach’s Chaconne in D minor: hence the title of the work, which also represents a concern to seek historical relationships in the instrument and music, part of the composer’s belief that research is essential in relating source material to performance practice in any musical era. To ghettoize progressive contemporary music and its performers betrays the artistry of such musicians; the purpose of the chosen title is to demonstrate that the new oboe is equally attuned to playing Bach and music of any period.

Redgate explains how the relationship between an instrumentalist and a composer can be mutually creative: ‘Roxburgh’s [work] generated an unexpected result. His use of multiphonics is very extensive and it soon became apparent that the multiphonic key we had developed was not really quite flexible enough for the task in hand. We therefore went back to the drawing board and redesigned this key in order to meet the demands of the work. The new key not only meets these demands but has also opened up some interesting new areas for further exploration.’

The submitted CD recording of the work (Métier, 2012) is performed by Christopher Redgate (oboe) and Stephen Robbings (piano).