ten minutes
Listen:
Instrumentation:
soprano, alto saxophone, piano
Premiered:
Colorfield Ensemble, Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, Jim Fusik, Karl Larson
Sept. 6, 2013 at Audio for the Arts, Madison, WI.
This recording features Margaret McNeal, Joe Connor, Seth King-Genglar.
About:
This title is somewhat deceiving. Rather than referring to the duration of the piece, ten minutes refers to the way the material for the piece was generated. Prompted by an absurd challenge from my jazz guitar professor to write a piece in ten minutes, I created two sets of harmonies for another guitarist and I to cycle through while improvising rhythms, patterns, dynamics and exploring timbre. I loved the result and knew that someday I would want to craft a fully notated version with this material. New text and instrumentation greatly shaped the direction of this original material. This piece deals with our perception of musical time, often subtly shifting to create new patterns and relationships between all three performers. I also asked vocalist Margaret McNeal to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a system of phonetic notation, to create a fake language for this piece. This “language” creates a strong sense of narrative but allows for a flexible, abstract interpretation.