Melody Instrument* ​& Piano
*Oboe, Recorder, Flute, Violin, Clarinet in Bb or Soprano Saxophone
Ego Flos Campi (2017-2018) is based upon two verses from the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament: 

Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium. (SS 2:1)  
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
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Sicut lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter filias. (SS 2:2) 
Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens.
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​The two movements (Roses & Lilies), differ in character and are linked by a short, chorale-like passage. Roses is a dance between two passionate lovers who sometimes frustrate and anger one another; whilst Lilies works its way towards transcendence. 
The principal themes are all variants of the cypher E-F-C, using sharps, flats & their doubles: and other secrets are hidden within the piece. 

The piece commences in the diatonic key signature of E minor.  It is jointly modelled on both the Oboe and the Modern Alto Recorder (with E-extension), but can also be performed on the Flute, Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone or Violin.
Ego Flos Campi is my earliest recital work for advanced or professional players.  Its debut was partly delayed by the pandemic. Thus, the first performance was given in July 2022, as follows:

World Premiere
Tuesday 26 July 2022 
51st International Double Reed Society Conference, University of Colorado Boulder
Kathleen Carter Bell, English Horn & Stephen Innis, Piano

​​Second Performance
Sunday 30 April 2023
DMA III Recital, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
Lisa Ryoo, Oboe & Casey Dierlam Tse, Piano

Third Performance
​Thursday 29 June 2023
Trinity Laban Black Culture 365 Composer Feature Concert #2, St. Alfege Church, Greenwich, London ​SE10
Steph Barker, Soprano Sax & Leo Nicholson, Piano
Watch on YouTube
For information & credits, please click on the image, to read the caption.
Purchasing the Score
To obtain the score, please send a message via the Contact Page.
​Ego Flos Campi

​for Solo Melody Instrument & Piano

Level:  Advanced 
​Duration: 6'10"

Purchase Score
Scores Now Available:

C-score in E minor
a) for Oboe
c) for Modern Alto Recorder with E-foot, Flute or Violin
 
 b) ​Bb-score in concert D minor
Soprano Sax or Clarinet part is in transposed E minor
Flowers 
(As Seen in the Video)
Flowers & Credits, From L to R:
1)  Rose of Sharon (Althea) - Hibiscus Syriacus   Image credit:  Jim Evans (1962) - Wikimedia Creative Commons Licence - Share Alike 4.0 International
2)  Negev Iris (Iris mariae) - Image credit: Martin Boesch (2016) - Wikimedia Creative Commons Licence - Share Alike 4.0 International
​3)  Spring flowering of Iris Negev or Iris Mariae in the Negev desert  Image credit: Irina Opachevsky - Licence:  Shutterstock
4)  Negev/Iris/Road 222/Revivim - Image credit: Martin Boesch (2016) - Wikimedia Creative Commons Licence - Share Alike 4.0 International
​5) Iris mariae Barbey, Northern Negev, Israel.  Image credit: Gideon Pisanty (2013) - Wikimedia Creative Commons Licence - Share Alike 3.0 International
Based in London, England, international prizewinning musician Althea Talbot-Howard is a classical composer who began her professional career in 1992 as a soloist and orchestral guest principal. In 2005, Gramophone Magazine called her “a superb oboist”.  A graduate of Girton College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music; she won Third Prize in the Paris-Ville d'Avray International Oboe Competition in 2007; and was one of twelve equal prizewinners in the Ora Singers Christmas Gift Composition Competition in 2019. 
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Of Afro-British ancestry, she is a 12th-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who formalized Britain’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; and therefore a 14th-generation descendant of King James I & VI, who commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible.  Both anti-slavery and Christian themes feature strongly in her compositional output.