(University of Oregon, 2023-06) Keller, Rebecca; Peña, Melissa
Alyssa Morris is an award winning oboist and composer with two recent solo oboe works
that highlight contrasting musical representations of different forms of perception. In the first
piece, Collision Etudes, two movements utilize a musical translation of synesthetic perception
based on the color wheel of Alexander Scriabin according to the color palettes by artists Joan
Mitchell and Alma Thomas. For the second piece, Ruminations, Morris notated musical
representations of her own perceptions of the strenuous emotions brought on by the COVID-19
pandemic. This work examines these two pieces closely, highlighting the uses of sensory and
emotional perception through compositional similarities and differences in performing each
work.
