Six Memos for the Next Millennium (2014)
saxophone quartet - 19'
I. "like the bird, and not the feather" - Lightness
II. "night itself, and what it contains" - Exactitude
III. "like dunes shifted by the desert wind" - Visibility
IV. "a quantum of affection" - Multiplicity
V. "a Saturn who dreams of being a Mercury" - Quickness
Commissioned by and dedicated to the Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet.
“Six Memos for the Next Millennium” is a collection of five character pieces for saxophone quartet inspired by Italo Calvino’s work of the same title. Each of the movements is a musical depiction of one of the values of literature that Calvino outlines: Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity. The titles of each movement are evocative quotations from each lecture. Calvino died before finishing the sixth, Consistency, and so there is no sixth movement, but "a quantum of affection" features two versions as a nod to the missing lecture/movement. Because Calvino’s topics are not simple (e.g. “having a good plot”, or “developing characters fully”) the musical “depictions” are more subtle than bald tone painting or the employ of stereotypes and thus might better be termed “expressions”. For example, “Lightness” is not consistently high in pitch and delicately scored, nor is it without “serious” musical content and treatment. Instead, as Calvino quotes Valéry, “light like a bird, and not like a feather”, that movement conveys both a sense of freedom of motion, as well as a sense of that motion being goal-directed. Each movement was designed, per the quartet's request, to be capable of standing alone, allowing for versatile programming, while also holding together as a large scale work lasting approximately 20 minutes. The saxophone quartet’s flexibility and capability of both blend and delineation make it an ideal vehicle to musically interpret Calvino’s nuanced ideas.
I. "like the bird, and not the feather" - Lightness
II. "night itself, and what it contains" - Exactitude
III. "like dunes shifted by the desert wind" - Visibility
IV. "a quantum of affection" - Multiplicity
V. "a Saturn who dreams of being a Mercury" - Quickness
Commissioned by and dedicated to the Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet.
“Six Memos for the Next Millennium” is a collection of five character pieces for saxophone quartet inspired by Italo Calvino’s work of the same title. Each of the movements is a musical depiction of one of the values of literature that Calvino outlines: Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity. The titles of each movement are evocative quotations from each lecture. Calvino died before finishing the sixth, Consistency, and so there is no sixth movement, but "a quantum of affection" features two versions as a nod to the missing lecture/movement. Because Calvino’s topics are not simple (e.g. “having a good plot”, or “developing characters fully”) the musical “depictions” are more subtle than bald tone painting or the employ of stereotypes and thus might better be termed “expressions”. For example, “Lightness” is not consistently high in pitch and delicately scored, nor is it without “serious” musical content and treatment. Instead, as Calvino quotes Valéry, “light like a bird, and not like a feather”, that movement conveys both a sense of freedom of motion, as well as a sense of that motion being goal-directed. Each movement was designed, per the quartet's request, to be capable of standing alone, allowing for versatile programming, while also holding together as a large scale work lasting approximately 20 minutes. The saxophone quartet’s flexibility and capability of both blend and delineation make it an ideal vehicle to musically interpret Calvino’s nuanced ideas.
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