Earlier Than Thou

For oboe and live electronics
Performed by Lauren Breen and Theo Trevisan, featuring Baroque oboe recordings by Emi Ostrom
May 7, 2024, Los Angeles, California

I was inspired to write this piece while thinking about both fidelity to early music performance practices and nostalgia for lower-fidelity recordings of the early 2000s compared to 2024. My former voice teacher often jokingly used the term “earlier than thou” to describe unrealistic fealty to imaginary notions of authentic performance practices, and I sought to juxtapose different musical forms of both acoustic and electronic nostalgia and “authentic performance practice” against each other.

Special thanks to Nina Young for her mentorship with this piece, to Lauren Breen for premiering it, and to Emi Ostrom for recording the Baroque oboe tracks used in the electronic material