His Shrill Mockery

Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon – 5’

His Shrill Mockery takes its title from Walter de la Mare's poem "The Familiar," in which an earthbound speaker begs a distant, taunting spirit to "cease thy shrill mockery." Scored for woodwind quartet in an AABA form, the piece is built from a handful of recurring rhythmic ideas that pass between soloists and full-ensemble responses. The solo voice shifts with each A section, and by the third, several of those once-solo lines have folded into octaves across the group.

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