Stephenson: The Balcony Scene for oboe or flute and English horn

Code: JP1102
ISMN: 979-0-3019-0622-4

From one of the great masterpieces, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the composer of this music, Robert Stephenson, attempts to recreate the thrill of the balcony scene using the universal language of music. It is music that is reflective, anxious, conflicting and eventually harmonious. How an actor delivers a line, or a musician a musical phrase, helps determine it's emotional effect on the audience. Like the wide range of human experience, it is about knowing and feeling the emotions that are within all of us.

The music is written as a duet for oboe or flute and English horn. One player starts the performance, unaccompanied, in the balcony, and the other joins in, but on stage. The dialogue continues with the two players eventually joining together on stage. At the end, they exit the stage, while playing, in opposite directions, symbolically representing Shakespeare's famous lines "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow".

Score and individual parts are included. Duration: approximately 7 minutes.

Robert Stephenson has composed another duo for this same instrumental combination, "The Shepherd and the Yodeler". See JP1111.

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