Viet Cuong's Bull's-Eye: A Conductor's Analysis

Abstract

Of the more than five-hundred works cataloged in Rodney Winther’s An Annotated Guide to Wind Chamber Music, ninety-six percent include double reed instruments in their orchestration, which limits the repertoire available to ensembles without access to double reed players. To address this lack of accessible repertoire, a consortium of ten institutions and organizations commissioned composer, Viet Cuong (b. 1990), to create a new work for chamber winds. The result of this commission is Bull’s-Eye (2019), a piece that sits at the intersection of the visual and performing arts. This crossroads of the arts generates opportunities for collaboration between conductors, musicians, and visual artists and the creation of unique performance opportunities that synthesize the two art forms. This document will present a conductor’s analysis of Bull’s-Eye. The analysis will explore the composer’s background, source material, form and structure, and offer rehearsal considerations to assist conductors who program the piece for performance with their ensembles.