Скачать или смотреть Estonian Music Days 2020 – Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

Stockholm Saxophone Quartet (Sweden) – Mathias Björnstad (soprano saxophone), Jörgen Pettersson (alto saxophone), Anna Magnusson (tenor saxophone), Linn Persson (baritone saxophone)

PROGRAMME:
Jüri Reinvere (b 1971)
“A-O” (2020, premiere)

Paulina Sundin, Monty Adkins
“Rondures”

Liisa Hirsch (b 1984)
“Us … and Them …” for saxophone quartet and tape (2020, premiere)

A–O: I find this a wonderful opportunity for writing chamber music and focusing on detailed small-scale forms. Meanwhile, it is also a great honour to compose for this ensemble. The title A–O is abstract but refers to Greek characters alpha and omega and also to the vowels used in the majority of languages. This piece was composed for the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet. (Jüri Reinvere)

Rondures for saxophone quartet and electronics is the third in a series of works created by Sundin and Adkins investigating new ways of constructing harmony through the use of new computer tools. Sundin has developed a unique software analysis and composition tool with the programmer Adrian Gierakowski. This tool implements William Sethares’ dissonance curves in order to create new scales and harmonies from sounds analysed with the software. In this work the harmonies heard are all derived from the sounds of the saxophones themselves. It is the creation of scale steps within the dissonance curves and the ways in which the resulting harmonies can be transposed and stretched that differentiate this process from earlier spectral composition. The title, implying curves and circles alludes to the cycle of fifths that underpins traditional harmonic thinking and the composers’ development of it.
The first movement revolves around five multiphonics and their gradual transformation. The multi-phonics are pulled apart harmonically. This results in the gradual buildup of composite chords by individual notes in each instrument. As the piece progresses the multiphonics become stretched and ‘modulations’ occur between them through common tones. As the modulations become more extreme the dynamic range and tessitura covered by the instruments becomes equally extended. The electronics are used to sustain one chord into the next to enhance the spectral merging of one harmony into another.
In the second movement the harmonic and gestural materials of the first are significantly developed. Whereas the first movement is fully notated, this second movement allows for more bounded-improvisation. The harmonic fields and gestural materials are outlined. However, within these ever-changing fields the quartet is able to create a rich and dynamic sound-world that complement the electronics. Delicate solo and duo lines are counterpointed by explosive outbursts that threaten to fracture harmonic cohesion.
Rondures is dedicated to the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet.

Us… and Them…: As I studied the recordings of various wolf howls from my analytical composer’s perspective while knowing nothing about the interaction between animals, I quickly learned that sensing each other’s presence through songs or voices, and the power or intimacy such a common experience creates is familiar both to people and the loneliest wolf cub. I viewed the spectral track of two different wolf packs and found fascinating musical references in the howling ensembles of the pack members. For example, in one of my recordings, the alpha established a specific pitch, the next wolf joined by sliding downwards, the third by sliding upwards and together they reached a pulsating unison that resounded throughout the woods – only to begin the next similar sequence. This pitch was also picked up on the other side of the forest and so they kept answering each other in this multi-choral manner for three minutes. While the pulsating unison might amplify the sound and give the impression that the number of wolves is greater, without the purpose of claiming territory the wolves’ bodies release happiness hormones and strengthen the ties within the pack.
These three pieces put the expressive techniques of classical music into a somewhat extraordinary position: similarly to wolves, the saxophones interact with each other in a temporally flexible manner, choosing and synchronising entrances and listening to the delicate microtonal shades of the unison. Keywords: bioacoustics, echolocation. (Liisa Hirsch)

The Stockholm Saxophone Quartet is proud to present a program consisting of two world premieres by the Estonian composers; Jüri Reinevere, Liisa Hirsch as well as pieces by Paulina Sundin (Sweden) and Monty Adkins (UK). All the pieces are written especially for the quartet. Some of the compositions are inspired by wolf communication and Pythagoras. The pieces demonstrate a detailed and colorful sense of sound design allied with a meticulous structural balance – immersive, patient, and timbrally rich, with an intricate interplay between the acoustic and electronic sound sources.