Digital Download of the Full score.
8.5x11
31 pages
 
Osiris was written in 2005 during a period when I was exploring the Tenor Bassoon (a.k.a the “Tenoroon”). This is an instrument with a long history but virtually no literature. As such, I wrote several works for the instrument including Osiris: Lord of the Duat. This work lies somewhere between a concerto and a tone poem and takes as its inspiration a work like Sibelius’ Swan of Tuonela where the English Horn is a soloist, but neither work is strictly a concerto. This work is, perhaps, the first significant composition ever for the little-known Tenor Bassoon and is certainly the first ever concertante work for the instrument.
 
Osiris was one of the most important Egyptian gods as he presided over death and the afterlife in a realm known as the Duat. This work tries to incorporate a feeling of otherworldliness and mysticism while not being narrative in nature. The main motif of the piece is a three-note figure of a dotted half note next to an adjacent half note followed by a quarter note a few steps away. This figure is a musical interpretation of the three stars that make of the belt of Osiris in the constellation now known as Orion. The celestial aspect of the piece is represented by the mallet percussion who play an almost equal role to that of the Tenor Bassoon soloist.