Seascapes

for saxophone quartet

I composed this piece as all-encompassing landscapes, in which the continuous flow of the graphics reaches streaming of sounds, and the instruments collectively contribute in sonifying the whole picture.

Streaming invites the performers to develop and establish sonic materials for interpreting the graphics. The performers may collaboratively be working with each other to determine appropriate timbre and techniques for the gestures. The size and placement of the shapes on the staves decide on their dynamic, pitch/register, and duration. There are no individual parts, and performers read through the score, aided by an in-ear click track. The notation invites creative interactive engagement of performers, with flexibility in the choice of specific tones. Denser graphical gestures indicate an accumulation of instrumental sound with changes in dynamic, register, and rhythm while leaving specific pitch choices open. Other, sparser ones specify precise pitch and rhythmic contours. At times, layers branch and rejoin one another to show the splitting and merging of streams.