[Live] Saxophone Duo

Hello!

Here is my newest composition. I wanted to try a very different approach than what I normally do in my composing process.
I made a sketch of material and let two saxophonists play this material in very free ways.
When they submitted their recordings the actual composing started with very static material since I cannot change the recorded material that much.

It was an exercise in structure and arch building, but I also see it as a proper composition.
I want to create an additive film to accompany the composition. Do you have any ideas for themes, scenes?

I would love to hear your comments!

2 [Echt] Saxophone duo.mp3

- Maarten Bauer

Hi Maarten!

Very nice result. To me it's a beautiful composition. The ecstatic world of sound here is calming.

The process of composition is quite interesting. This is a kind of indeterminate composition, giving voice to the players, good!

The recurring motive from 10:20 or so seems "wagnerian" (Der Fliegende Holländer).

It's interesting you taking the 4-25 motive and letting its stationary existence as a motive and expanding it into a mode/collection, especially with the harmonic extensions of a single fundamental later on (because it exits that collection, which is a fun dynamic). Very Scelci-like in execution, but a tad slower. Use of recorded elements was quite enjoyable. 

On 8/4/2020 at 3:01 PM, Luis Hernández said:

Hi Maarten!

Very nice result. To me it's a beautiful composition. The ecstatic world of sound here is calming.

The process of composition is quite interesting. This is a kind of indeterminate composition, giving voice to the players, good!

The recurring motive from 10:20 or so seems "wagnerian" (Der Fliegende Holländer).

Thanks, how are you doing?! 

I agree that the approach is very free and more intuitive and it gives indeed more input from the musicians, which they really liked. Then, the piece is really theirs too. 

On 8/7/2020 at 5:35 AM, Monarcheon said:

It's interesting you taking the 4-25 motive and letting its stationary existence as a motive and expanding it into a mode/collection, especially with the harmonic extensions of a single fundamental later on (because it exits that collection, which is a fun dynamic). Very Scelci-like in execution, but a tad slower. Use of recorded elements was quite enjoyable. 

 

Hi, thanks! What do you mean with 4-25?

What is nice is that I needed and was able to focus even more on structure, because I didn't have to deal that much with the material itself. I got it from the musicians, so yeah, I could experiment with form much more, which I believe you can definitely hear. 

On 8/4/2020 at 3:01 PM, Luis Hernández said:

The recurring motive from 10:20 or so seems "wagnerian" (Der Fliegende Holländer).

Yeah, I used it to break the atmosphere and give a new direction to the piece. It wasn't a direct quote from Fliegende Holländer, but I was aware of Wagner style / fanfare-like.