| Programme notes: | I.
II. To the memory of Coleman Hawkins
III.
The ever on-going search by composers for new tonal colours and textures has led to an examination of existing instruments for new possibilities of tone production and tone modification. The saxophone family has proven to be an unusually rich source of new sounds and performance techniques and the capacity of the saxophone for unique tonal modifications is attracting the attention of an increasing number of contemporary composers. A saxophonist as well as a composer, M. William Karlins understood this potential and incorporated many of these techniques into his music.
Improvisation by the performers has increased as a compositional technique in contemporary music, sometimes to the point of anarchy, more often in a carefully controlled manner. Karlins' Music for Tenor Saxophone and Piano uses improvisation as a means of creating tension and also to provide a freedom of expression to the performer. Often no specific rhythm is indicated in the music, only pitched and an indication of the flow of the line that is desired. A particularly violent exchange between the saxophone and the piano in the first movement is at first written out, but later moves into an improvised rhythmic pattern in which only pitch, but not order, is specified. Numerous cadenza-like sections occur throughout the composition, again with pitch carefully notated without rigid rhythmical indications. Yet in every case the composer has provided directions of general style and phrasing which prevent a monotonous approach to performance and create varying degrees of tension between the movements.
- Frederick Hemke |
