Instrumentation: Saxophone Quartet (S, A. T, Bari.)

Duration: 1:35

Programmatic information:

Programme notes provided by the composer

Dedicated to the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

Three movement work:

I. Teunim

II. Riot

III. De-Cadence

These three miniatures are the result of playing games with selected measures from
Mozart’s Musical Dice Game (KV 516). Set in a parody of the minuet and trio form,
the application of some simple musical rules transforms the predictable into the
unexpected.

Instrumentation: Saxophone Quartet (S, A, T, Bari.)

Duration: 4:40

Programmatic information: 

Graphic score

Programme notes provided by composer

Visual graphic scores are typically read in two dimensions, like a map. Although the use of density in the graphic creates a sense of a third dimension, the use of a photograph as a score enables the multi-dimensional aspect to be easily perceived, and allows for increased depth of interpretation. The human cognitive process automatically adds the third dimension, reconstructing the scene that the photograph had reduced to a flat image, and making composite sense of the picture. The fourth dimension can be superimposed, telling the story of how the landscape was created over time by wind and grains of sand. Human imagination can perhaps be considered as constituting a fifth dimension which projects unseen but associated ideas into the picture, like the desert life beneath the surface of the dune, vehicles on the road, or the presence of the photographer.

The landscape photograph Naukluft Mountains from Elim Dune by Merryl Riley constitutes the score for Elim Dune. The work is designed to function in one of two possible ways, each of which assigns a different level of control to performers and composer. The photograph is divided into a grid of 4 vertical sections, each allocated to one instrument, and 4 horizontal sections, each of which represents a duration of one quarter of the total time. The score is to be read from the bottom upwards.

In the case of performance option 1, the duration of the piece should be agreed on beforehand by the players, and the proportion of the horizontal sections to the total time should be maintained.

Read more about this piece here.