Hypercolor

Hypercolor

for saxophone quartet

view the score here

Program Note

Hypercolor is a work in three movements that draws from a number of influences. One may immediately notice the presence of Reich, Adams, and other American post-minimalists, especially in the first movement. Quickly repeated rhythmic patterns advance through slowly changing harmonic fields providing a backdrop against which each member of the quartet plays and grooves.

With its slow and solemn character, the second movement allows the listener to breath as the quartet swells and fades in pensive, organ-like tones. Though undulating rhythms are present throughout, they are always at the service of a tender melody or ethereal chorale. Dynamic and emotional extremes challenge the quartet, beginning and ending with a ghostly hum and passionately singing at the movement’s peak.

The final movement of this work returns once again to the minimalist sensibilities of the first. The quartet is more fragmented here, favoring counterpoint and texture over uniformity and line. Melodies emerge from each instrument, though often in tandem with another and in close imitation or overlap creating a tightly-woven musical fabric. The quick, lilting rhythms suggest a dance, but more in the way light dances across the surface of water, or the way leaves seem to dance as they fall from the tree.