Suite for Flute and Oboe

Suite for Flute and Oboe

Black composer Ulysses Kay's "Suite for Flute and Oboe" is a four movement work dedicated to flutist Martin Heylman and oboist Ernest Serpentini of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.

According to comments included in a YouTube video of Megan Kyle and Kathryn Scarbrough, "The Suite is composed in a Neoclassic style using traditional Baroque and Classical forms with more progressive harmony influenced by Kay’s study with German composer Paul Hindemith. The movements, Prelude, Air, Minuet, and Gigue each stand on their own.

The flute and oboe perform polyphonic and homophonic imitative and competing textures coupled with moments of florid unison sixteenth-note passages. Driving motivic rhythms carry the Prelude, Minuet, and Gigue movements, while the lyrical adagio Air contains shorter phrase lengths in wider intervals. The Minuet and Gigue are presented as traditional dance forms with lively, rhythmically accented exchanges in both voices. A keen ear and technical dexterity are required of both instruments."

Duration: 5.5 minutes

Kay, Ulysses (1917-1995)

Ulysses Simpson Kay (Wikipedia), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_Kay

Ulysses Kay, Suite for Flute and Oboe (Worldcat record), https://www.worldcat.org/title/suite-for-flute-and-oboe/oclc/681405993

Masashi Kawasaki, "Ulysses Kay Suite for Flute & Oboe" (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLsx2n1juI&ab_channel=MasashiKawasaki

Geneseo Wind Quintet, "Suite for Flute and Oboe (Kay)" (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYqShlYpyg

1964

0-10 minutes

1950-1999

flute / flûte

oboe / hautbois

duo