Neither Proud Nor Ashamed
New Music for Saxophone
Randall Hall, Saxophone
Christian Lauba: HARD
Randall
Hall: Reflecting Pool
Luciano Berio: Sequenza
VIIb
Nicolas Scherzinger: Schism
Kevin Ernste: To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed
Jonathon
Kirk: ÉnecronebulaÉ
About the Program
The
fate of the saxophone in art music is bound to that of modern music
itself. Although the saxophone was
invented in the mid-19th century, it did not come into its own until
the beginning of the 20th century, a time when art music had made
radical breaks with its past.
Composers abandoned the traditional tonal system of major and minor scales,
and replaced it with the free use of all twelve chromatic pitches. By
mid-century some composers, having accepted previously forbidden pitch
combinations, began to focus on sound itself: both the search for new sound
colors and the possibility of timbre replacing pitch and rhythm as the primary
parameter of music. Composers
experimented to find new ways of playing traditional instruments beyond
pitch. Developments in electronics
further extended the range of sonic possibilities. The results often challenge our very conceptions of what
constitutes music by embracing all sound as potentially musical. It is in this world of the avant-garde
that the saxophone has gained its fullest acceptance and its richest
repertoire. Four of the pieces included here (Ernste, Kirk, Scherzinger as well
as my own composition) incorporate both acoustic and electronic resources. The two acoustic pieces (Berio and
Lauba) have already become staples of the modern saxophone repertoire. All of them explore the new musical
language and range in mood from quite reflection to violence.
I
am often asked why I perform this type of music. My reflections on this are in ongoing process, but there are
some trends I can identify.
Partially it is out of aesthetic agreement with many of the 20th
century innovations discussed above; a shared belief in the musical
possibilities of the new systems, an interest in the exploration of sound
itself, and a musical wanderlust to discover what else is out there. Partially it is the modern manifestation
of the old 19th century virtuosic ideal, although now mastery of the
instrument includes a variety of special effects and pyrotechnics. To some degree it is a way to come to
terms with music in a post-rock-Ôn-roll world and infuse the raw energy of rock
into serious art music without creating some type of hybrid that is alien to
both worlds. On the other hand
there is something archaic and transcendent about much of this new music. Somehow it invokes something deep
within us, something pre-verbal, even mythic; perhaps it is the sound of the
subconscious or that of Creation.
The central reason I perform experimental music may be that it is the
music of possibility. Any sound is
potentially musical and expressive. With this new freedom we must look deeper
into our artistic goals, going to the core of what we have to say. Having gained clarity about our musical
aims we are now only limited by our imaginations.
Program
Christian Lauba (b.1952) - HARD
(1989) solo tenor saxophone (Fuzeau)
French composer Christian
Lauba teaches at the National Conservatory of Bordeaux and has received the
SACEM Prize, Medal of Honor of the City of Bordeaux and First Prize in the
Berlin International Composition Competition. His pieces have been performed internationally. Lauba is a leading composer of
contemporary music for saxophone and his raucous tenor solo HARD is one of the anthems of this style. The work takes advantage of the
saxophoneÕs full palette of extended techniques: multiphonics, slap-tongue, tone-color trills, vibrato
manipulation, flutter-tongue and key clicks. The composer describes the piece as a Òsynthesis between the
present contemporary music and the more popular music (Hard rock, Soul music)
which is often improvised. These
musics have many aspects in common in spite of the barriers that apparently
separate these essential means of expression. The piece is very precisely
written but it must give the impression that it is a long improvisation. Both performer and audience must go
into a trance at the end of the performance.Ó
Randall
Hall (b. 1969) Reflecting Pool (2004) alto saxophone and tape (unpublished)
Sometimes the smallest event can create
the most profound repercussions. Reflecting
Pool evokes a
contemplative but highly charged visual and musical expedition through a cycle
of chaos and recovery. The score
was originally written to accompany a short film by Matt Costanza and Stephanie
Maxwell at the 2004 Image, Movement, Sound Festival in Rochester, New York. The imagery consists of both animated
and live action footage that have been transformed and layered in digital
post-production. The techniques used to create this multilayered work include
painting directly on 35mm film that was subsequently hand-manipulated during
digital rerecording, object animation, and animated recordings of changing
light reflections and movements of microscopic water creatures. The music unfolds in a series of
episodes following the changing scenes of the film. Each episode presents a small thematic cell, often
incorporating extended performance techniques, that is freely developed by the
saxophone. The tape consists of
various acoustic signals (including diverse saxophone passages, vocalizations
by my daughters Hannah and Rachel, electric guitar riffs, radio static, etc)
that have undergone an assortment of digital manipulations. The live and electronic elements are
layered together to produce a range of colors and textures that highlight the
film images. To learn more about
the film contact Stephanie Maxwell (http://www.rit.edu/~sampph).
Luciano Berio
(1925-2003) Sequenza VIIb (1969/1993) solo soprano saxophone (Universal)
Berio was one of the most
important composers of the 20th century. His Sequenzas are a landmark series of works for solo
instruments. Sequenza VII
was originally written in 1969 for the oboist Heinz Holliger and was later
reworked by the composer for soprano saxophone. The piece is centered on and moves around a single note. It focuses on sound, its color, attack,
variation, and resonance, taking precedence over pitch organization. Berio also employs extended techniques
like mirco-tonal shadings and multiphonics. This piece is reminiscent of BerioÕs work with tape and
electronic composition, and may be heard as an example of acoustic music
imitating electronic music.
Nicolas Scherzinger (b.
1968) Schism (2003) alto saxophone and interactive computer (MAX/MSP)
(Scherzi Music)
Composer Nicolas Scherzinger
is chair of composition at
Syracuse University and received his MM
and DMA from the Eastman
School of Music. He has received
awards and commissions from ASCAP,
SOCAN, the Barlow Endowment,
the Jerome Foundation, the Canada
Council, and the Eastman School
of Music. His music has been
performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in
Taiwan, China, and Europe. His works are published by
ScherziMusic Press. Schism was written
for Randall Hall and consists of a series of short improvisational works for
saxophone and interactive computer using the MAX/MSP application. The main difference between Schism and many traditional works that combine live
instruments with electronics is the fact that here the computer and the
performer interact with one another in real time. No pre-recorded material is used; all of the computer sounds
are generated as the piece is performed.
Each piece consists of a collection of pitch materials and special
effects with which the saxophonist improvises freely. The computer reacts
to the saxophonist, manipulating the live signal from the saxophone and
producing a series of sounds based on it.
The computer is also capable of creating random elements throughout the
work, thus allowing the saxophonist to react in turn to the computer. The interactive computer environment is
designed to maximize flexibility in performance and to generate, layer, and
route musical material with the same improvisational freedom that one might
develop with a purely acoustic instrument.
Kevin Ernste (b. 1973) To Be
Neither Proud Nor Ashamed (2002) for alto saxophone and electronic music (unpublished)
Kevin Ernste teaches
composition and electronic music at Cornell University. He did graduate work in music
composition at the Eastman School of Music. His awards include a Whitford L. Huff Award, two Belle
Gitelman Awards, a Howard Hanson Ensemble Prize, a McCurdy Prize, an American
Music grant, and the Ralph Jackno Scholarship. His music has been performed in
Holland, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, England, Cuba, and
throughout the United States.
About this piece he writes: ÒTo Be Neither
Proud Nor Ashamed was composed for
saxophonist Randall Hall whose musicality and technique were central to its
conception and realization. The piece combines strictly notated music
with highly improvisatory passages and an electronic backdrop of sounds
recorded in extreme proximity to the instrument (keys, airflow/blowing,
spitting, tonguing the reed, etc). The title comes from Cecil Forsyth's
portrayal of the saxophone as having no history of which Ôto be proud or
ashamed.ÕÓ The composer supervised
the entire recording and editing process of this piece. His conception was less the
preservation of a live performance than a unique digital creation independent
of the piece that is heard in the concert hall. In this way editing becomes part of a Òpost-compositionalÓ
process that unites the acoustic and electronic elements and better completes
the composerÕs vision.
Jonathon
Kirk (b.1975) - ÉnecronebulaÉ (2001) tenor saxophone and computer generated drone (unpublished)
Jonathon Kirk is an active performer and composer interested in many areas of new media, improvisation, and electronic music. His works have been performed by a diverse group of musicians and ensembles including Ensemble Medusa, Harvard Collegium Musicum, and members of Champ DÕaction. He has had works presented at festivals and venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia including ICMC, Listening in the Sound Kitchen, the Knitting Factory, the Spark Festival, and at the festivities of the Cultural Capital of Europe in Brugge. He studied music at Augustana College and the Eastman School of Music, and computer music and new media at Brown University. Kirk explains, ÒÉnecronebulaÉ was written for my good friend and collaborator Randall Hall while I was living in Ghent, Belgium. The work takes its name and inspiration from a personal dream image of physical death in outer space, stretching across long time spans, slowly but peacefully. The underlying structure of the work can be heard as an inverted auditory spectrum, where the high drone acts as the fundamental, and the tenor saxophone works through a network of unstable harmonics and resultant timbres of the gradually changing flat-line. Toward the end of the piece as the original pitch within the drone thins out again, human voices are heard. This signals the conclusion and the sound of the saxophone dissipates into galactic dust and gas.Ó
This recording
was made possible by the generous support of Augustana College through the Fund
for New Faculty Research and the Faculty Research Fund.
Track 1 was recorded on
December 8, 2005; track 3 on January 26, 2006; and tracks 4-6 on May 26, 2006
in Wallenberg Hall, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois; Ryan Kinney
recording engineer.
Track 2 was
recorded in April 2004, at home in Vancouver, Washington.
Track 8 was recorded live
March 8, 2001 in The Tetrahedron Concert Hall, at the Logos Foundation, Ghent,
Belgium.
2:
Reflecting Pool (unpublished)
3:
Sequenza VIIb (Universal)
4-6:
Schism (Scherzi
Music)
7:
To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed (unpublished)
8: ÉnecronebulaÉ (unpublished)