Ethan Hayden | Violetear

Violetear was composed in the Fall of 2017 in close collaboration with oboist Megan Kyle, to whom it is dedicated with great appreciation for her insights, enthusiasm, and artistry.

The piece focuses intensely on doubles, reflections, and doppelgängers—specifically, via quick alternation between two parallel narratives which move in and out of collision with one another. The oboist splits herself in two, like Janus, while weaving a singular thread through a tangle of repetitions and reversals, emphasizing the oboe's pneumatic mechanicity and elastic unpredictability.

Instrumentation:	solo oboe
Date:	Fall 2017
Length:	ca. 8'
Premiere:	5 October 2017 Megan Kyle, oboe Baird Recital Hall Buffalo, NY
Program Note:	Violetear was composed in the Fall of 2017 in close collaboration with oboist Megan Kyle, to whom it is dedicated with great appreciation for her insights, enthusiasm, and artistry. The piece focuses intensely on doubles, reflections, and doppelgängers—specifically, via quick alternation between two parallel narratives which move in and out of collision with one another. The oboist splits herself in two, like Janus, while weaving a singular thread through a tangle of repetitions and reversals, emphasizing the oboe's pneumatic mechanicity and elastic unpredictability.