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Oil of Dog
- Oil of Dog ~ mp3
I first read Ambrose Bierce's bizarre short story many years ago when I was an undergraduate. I enjoyed it immensely because of the sophisticated language combined with the sarcasm and cool logic of the story itself-- characteristics of most of Bierce's writing. Although I liked the story, I could find no musical use for it, since it would not, I believed, make a suitable piece to be sung. When the Annapolis Brass Quintet asked me to write a work for them for a quintet and actor, I felt that a story told in the first person would work well and remembered "Oil of Dog."
The focus of the work, of course, is on the actor, with the quintet adding to the emotion of the story. The cheerful ragtime at the beginning heightens the sarcasm of the morbid tale, and several other leitmotives interplay with the words of the actor.
This work is undergoing revision at this time and is not yet available.
This work has not yet been recorded professionally.
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