Written for ~Nois Saxophone Quartet

Sax Quartet (Sop., Alto, Ten. Bari.) — 6’30”

Premiered March 25, 2023. International Festival of the Arts, University of the Incarnate Word. Composers Alliance of San Antonio Concert. San Antonio.

This work was written for the ~Nois saxophone quartet in cooperation with the Composers Alliance of San Antonio for a concert in March of 2023.

Grand Jeu is a particular registration on French organs of the 17th and 18th centuries that includes heavy reeds (8’ and 4’) and mutations. The effect is very robust, loud and bright. Works written with this registration may also feature dialogues that offer softer divisions of the organ and lighter textures. As I thought about the wide variety of sounds that a saxophone quartet can make, I first envisioned them sounding together - like an organ - all playing in strict parallel motion of fourths and fifths. This block of sound was my starting point. (I wondered how the early saxophone may have been received in churches in France as it developed in the 19th century, noting that the Catholic Church banned saxophones in the early 1900s.) In this piece, we also hear quieter sections in the middle – some in an almost reverent tone - but much of the work presents a wall of sound.