Sonata

''When Stephen Robinson contacted me with a view to commissioning a work for oboe and piano I deemed myself to be a very lucky composer I had heard his CD Bright Vessel in which several other Australian composers had their works displayed at their very best. Stephen did not stipulate or insist on any particular musical form for this work he generously gave me permission to let my imagination take me wherever it led, but he did mention that he did not want the oboe type-cast only as eminently suited to music in a pastoral style. He hoped that I would explore other facets and characteristics of the instrument.

Accordingly, I searched for melodic material of a highly contrasted nature - lively, sober, calm, energetic, etc. Then, quite early on, a quote I had heard from Alexander Pope in his Essay on Man - ''from grave to gay'' gave me both the title and focus for what I wanted to write - a piece which explores a wide variety of moods and allows the oboe to display how it can be grave"