Communion Service for Boys' Voices
John G. Parton
Written quickly in the autumn of 2002, this was a response to the excellence that year of the boys of the choir at the Church of the Transfiguration on West 29th Street in New York, where I was singing bass. The oboe part is written for Jeffrey Hale, an alto in the choir and also a professional oboe player. This mass was presented to Dr. Claudia Dumschat, organist and choirmaster, as a Christmas gift that December.
The oboe part, despite being tailored to the instrument's tendency to be louder at the bottom of its range, may be played on most any other melody instrument, perhaps with some alterations of octave as necessary: flute, clarinet, violin... Even a trumpet in high F would work if the boys were of sufficient volume to balance it.