Description
Duration
c.5 min
Premiere
July 1998
Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
PRISM Sax Quartet
Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
PRISM Sax Quartet
Instrumentation
ssax.asax.tsax.barisax
Program Notes
SAX TRAX has been performed by Prism (NY), Helikon (Holland) and Diastema (Paris) quartets among others. The work plays with elements of different musical languages; jazz, funk, blues, baroque, romantic and modern atonal. The piece opens with pointillistic rhythms followed by a quasi blues middle section featuring a soprano sax improvisation. Sostenuto lines give way to soloistic passages over slowly evolving harmonies. A brief transition leads into a recapitulation of the opening material where, after a momentary loss of verve, the quartet re-enters with renewed vigor and drives the piece to its close.
–Andrea Clearfield