Apollon Marie-Rose Barret (1804-1879) was a renown French oboist who served as principal oboist of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden and professor of oboe at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He contributed greatly to the design of the modern oboe and wrote etudes, studies, and other works to advance the art of oboe playing. The 1862 edition of his "Complete Method for the Oboe," the source for these arrangements, is used by virtually every oboe student and teacher worldwide, even today. Notes from the Arranger: I decided to arrange Barret's Forty Progressive Melodies for double-reed quartet for several reasons. First, playing chamber music is a great way for students to learn to listen to each other, become more precise in intonation and rhythm, and to explore new musical adventures. Second, the Barret melodies are memorable - some would even call them "catchy" - and adding harmonizations and countermelodies renews them and makes them accessible to new players. Third, this body of work could be useful for performance by a quartet where casual or shorter pieces are needed. My overall hope is that players and teachers will enjoy these melodies as much as I have, in both playing and arranging them. In his master classes, John de Lancie often said that if you paid attention, you could get everything you needed to know about playing the oboe from "The Barret." -- Ken Watson Sheet music available from TrevCo-Varner Music. "Ken Watson's colorful and imaginative quartet arrangements of the Barret Forty Progressive Melodies are a wonderful addition to the double reed repertoire. Students will benefit from hearing them, while any listener can enjoy them. The melodies are beautifully played on this recording, and the combination of two oboes, English horn and bassoon is a great sound!" -- Marilyn Zupnik, Oboist, Classic Oboe Etudes Recorded at Bias Studios, Springfield, Virginia, May 28-June 14, 2013 Bob Dawson, Recording Engineer and Mastering Engineer