“Imaginary bars”, for solo tenor saxophone, was written in 2012, and it was commissioned and dedicated to the saxophonist Henrique Portovedo. It's starting point was a poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson,"Crossing the Bar".
In “Imaginary bars” I was especially interested in reflecting about the role of gesture during a musical performance, by which I mean what a gesture can induce through listening.
Most musical gestures can be represented through a physical gesture, and a listener recognises, acknowledges, and interprets it from their own personal experience. As the musical or a physical gesture becomes more known to the audience, it brings further meaning to the musical composition. In order to allow this visitation of communicative familiarity, for as long as possible, I have attempted to predict gesture-forming tendencies within the composed structure, and then to expand each of them. In my piece “Imaginary bars” there is a conscious work to find representations so that the musical gesture is aided by the physical gesture.
dedicated to Henrique Portovedo; premiered on the 8th of november, 2012 at University of Aveiro.
Imaginary 1 - Henrique Portovedo
Astute Music