L’appel du Vide was written for solo oboe with no one in particular in mind to play it. I was in the process of trying to understand each instrument a little better, and so I was writing pieces for many different wind instruments, hoping to get them played at some point or another. The overall piece is a theme and variations which uses a set of four chromatic tones (0167) in its prime, inversion, retrograde, and inversion retrograde forms along with many different transpositions. The title refers to the call of the void: that feeling that tells us to jump when we stand somewhere very high. At the time of writing the piece, I had not gotten into writing atonal music yet, and this piece was a response to my call of the void: to leap into music that explores traditional harmony less and focuses on parameters of articulation, style, and form. Performed by Madeline Kerkemeyer
