Oboe - OB/VOICE

Composer: Vogel, Roger

Oboe
for oboe and medium voice
by Roger C. Vogel (b. 1947) - American composer

Written in 196 for Dwight Manning, professor of music at the University of Georgia. Text by Laurence McKinney:

Oboe

Hard to pronounce and play, the OBOE--

(With cultured folk it rhymes with "doughboy"

Though many an intellectual hoboe

Insists that we should call it oboe)

However, be that as it may,

Whene'er the oboe sounds its A

All of the other start their tuning

And there is fiddling and bassooning.

Its plaintive note presaging gloom

Brings anguish to the concert room,

EVen the players holds his breath

And scares the audience to death

For fear he may get off the key,

Which happens not infrequently.

This makes the saying understood:

"It's an ill wood wind no one blows good."