Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano (duration = 22:00)
1. Mechanical Bird
2. Tears of the Moon
3.Tumbalong

Written for the final recital by the celebrated oboist Diana Doherty at the Ukaria Cultural Centre (Sept. 2025), the 3 movements can be performed together or individually, each one exploring a contrasting set of ideas.

1. Mechanical Bird is a mischievous reference to the gilded mechanical nightingale in Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale. Like a well oiled machine, the cogs and gears of the piano spring to life and the oboe is transformed into a strutting, whirring, sometimes obstinate clockwork bird that chirps loudly and performs amazing feats of dexterity with machine-like insistence. Eventually the tension in the springs are spent and the show is over.
2. Tears of the Moon
In the glow of the full moon, love, sadness and grief intermingle as the restless mind cycles through a myriad of meditations and deliberations.
This piece embraces a determinedly more serious and emotionally engaged sound world, with a faint shadow of jazz colouring, a reference to Diana’s recent foray into jazz piano.
3. Tumbalong
The final piece in the collection is a virtuosic interplay between oboe and piano that brings to centre stage Dee and Beep’s joyous countenance, rhythmic sensibility, boundless lyricism and wicked sense of humour.
It is named after a playground on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour near my studio, and where I visit often with the grandkids.

Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano was commissioned by Ukaria for Diana  Doherty and is dedicated to her with love and admiration.
It was made possible through the generosity of commissioning partners Gillian Eldershaw and Andrew and Renata Kaldor.

Piano score – $50.00 + GST
Oboe part – $30.00 + GST

To order printed score and parts of this work please contact info@rimshot.com.au

For more info, please view the print music catalogue