The Screamin' Double Reed Blues (score & parts) - 2OB/EH/2BSN/CBSN

The Screaming' Double Reed Blues
for two oboes, English horn, two bassoons and contrabassoon
by William Spencer (b.1956) - American composer, bassoonist and conductor

PROGRAM NOTES

Sometimes ideas just come out and grab you and insist on taking you where they will go, regardless of any preconceived notions you might have. The title, “The Screamin’ Double Reed Blues,” really says just about all anyone would need to know about the piece. The composer’s brother, a very experienced musician with the blues (among many other styles), gave it his enthusiastic blessing when he first heard it, and the composer’s oldest friend—someone he has known for over 50 years—called it "like stripper music for an elder." I insist that you do not need to be either an elder or a stripper to enjoy it! Note that well-balanced doubling is encouraged, as is the addition of a trap set/drum kit if the group likes that idea.

ABOUT THE ARRANGER

Bassoonist, conductor, and composer William Spencer began his serious musical studies on bassoon at age 12 (after a few years of piano lessons had no apparent effect whatsoever). His teachers included among others Leonard Sharrow and Sherman Walt, former principals of the Chicago and Boston Symphonies respectively. He holds degrees from Boston University in bassoon and musicology, and a doctorate in conducting from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz. Over the course of five summers at the Aspen Music Festival he studied bassoon and conducting at different times, the latter with Paul Vermel. As a composer he has dabbled in song cycles, smaller-scale choral works, and double-reed-themed diversions.