saxophone quartet

Commission: Quasar, with support from the CCA

Premiere: January 23, 2020, Homage Series Katia Makdissi-Warren: ADN 0.01, Espace Aline-Letendre — Église du Gesù, Montréal (Québec)

In my meeting-language-of the musics of the Middle East and the West, microtonality is of primordial importance. Besides a fondness for the Arabic modes that encompass microtonality, I love microtonality within a more Western, contemporary framework which, as with Scelsi, emphasizes a basic notion of micropolyphony. In this piece, I wish to create a sonic fabric of meeting of the two notions of microtonality. The piece refers to studies concerning human DNA and above all to the many questions they raise. Scientists estimate that average difference in the DNA between two humans chosen at random is around .5%… From this point of view, we are really all cousins. And finally, are different musics really that different?

Katia Makdissi-Warren [i-20]