Lully: un ballet pour hautbois (2020) 

by Sunny Knable (b. 1983)

for Oboe and Piano 

commissioned Lillian Copeland

I. Ouverture

II. Entrée III. Sarabande

IV. Ritournelle

V. Air

PROGRAM NOTE:

Lully: un ballet pour hautboiswas the last piece of mine that was written and performed just before the world-wide lockdown in 2020. For being composed such a tense time, this short work in seven miniatures movements reflects more the light-hearted nature of my collaboration with oboist Lillian Copeland who had commissioned it for her recital. For a few months, I had been thinking about a play on Lillian’s name when it hit me: Lilly, Lilies... Lully! As it turns out, French Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully is credited with being the first composer to incorporate the oboe in his ballet Amour Malade (1685). His work became the basis for these short dance movements recomposed in a neo-Baroque language. -- Sunny Knable