David Mecionis

Oboe, Viola, and Bassoon

Composer's Note:

Trio in Two Parts with an Interval Between (2014--17, rev. 2021) was composed using a perhaps-novel method of progressively rotating pitch intervals along with their directions of travel. The method was applied to the twelve intervals located between the notes of a simple, descending thirteen-tone row (each of the twelve chromatic tones are stated and then the first tone is repeated one octave lower at the end of the row). The original row can be heard at measures 27--29. Rotation of interval direction generates 47 pitch complexes which increase in difference while retaining certain similarities reminiscent of family resemblances: shared melodic shapes stretch across distances of three octaves, patterns of chord structure appear and return, and certain pitches repeat themselves to the exclusion of others.

The piece owes its completion to the kind encouragement of Joël Evans and Jeffrey Marchand, oboist and bassoonist of the Pone Ensemble for New Music, to whom it is dedicated. They premiered the piece with Christiana Fortune-Reader on viola, on September 28, 2018 at the Arts Society of Kingston, New York.