Instrumentation: alto saxophone, piano, violin and cello

Premier information: Performed in a Stellenbosch Konservatorium lunch time concert.

Programmatic information:

Gestrand
in die ewigheid van see
Onbewegend
“Einde” gaan tot niet

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone, euphonium and tuba

Duration: 4:00

Premier information: Performed in Erin Hall by the Phax Trio

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

Duration: 3:19

Programmatic notes: Note from composer: “Magmawater (composed in 2018) was performed by the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet in 2018 at Purpur (and possibly in the Fismer at a lunchtime concert). It was written for the Sterkfontein Composer’s Meeting that year. The audio is a recording from the Purpur concert.”

Composer’s Notes: Magmawater – for the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet
– By Natali Frenz

The challenge that was presented to us by the committee of the Sterkfontein Composers’ Meeting was to delve into techniques that we had not previously explored.

Most of the variables that I scrutinise in Magmawater are built around multiphonic chords, specifically the overlapping of overtones, and how one’s awareness of the various partials is affected by the chord’s context. For example, if a multiphonic chord containing an F# is preceded by a ‘normal’ F#, does your ear pick out the F# in the harmonic more spontaneously than if it not preceded by an F#? If two different multiphonic chords have partials that overlap, do those reinforce one another? How does the delicate tone quality characteristics of multiphonics interact between different instruments? I am fascinated by intricate relationships
between variables in an element of sound, and interactions between those elements.

Magmawater is an Afrikaans title. Magmatic water comes from primordial water sources far beneath the earth’s surface, or from within molten igneous rock. The multiplex ties between the title and the conceptualisation of the music is too dense to be explored in this brief note.
This title relates to the tropes in Etienne van Heerden’s Toorberg, where the earth seems to withhold life-giving water as punishment for a collective injustice. I have yet to wrestle through the all the complexities of that novel, yet I felt the need to reference it due to my socio-political context here in Stellenbosch: a space fraught with severe drought, land debates, and issues of reconciliation and responsibility. Magmawater does not seek to take a political stance. Rather, it is designed to create an exposed, vulnerable sonic space.

An essential resource during every stage of composition was The Techniques of Saxophone
Playing (Die Spieltechnik des Saxophons) by Marcus Weiss and Giorgo Netti.

Once again, thank-you to the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet for their sensitivity and sincerity
in realising Magmawater.

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone, euphonium, tuba

Duration: 1:22