RESIDUUM I - HANDS OF HINGED METAL

Composer's note: "This extended alto sax piece is the first in a series of solo pieces I am writing, that explore the aesthetic and technical capabilities of soloists and their instruments. It is enormously difficult; requiring great stamina, technique and an understanding of jazz improvisation. The title is a quote taken from the classic computer role playing game, “Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura”. I was also inspired by a video I had recently seen where two robotic hands operate a saxophone, and recreate John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” solo in a marvellously automated, unmusical way. The work is heavily programmatic. I imagined a man encountering an ancient machine, its purpose unknown. By experimentation and manipulation of the controls, gradually the man discovers the device’s function; it is designed to output jazz. Unsatisfied with this outcome, the man continues to fiddle with the machine and eventually, unintentionally breaks it. Consequently, the piece is constructed using a vast number of simultaneous processes, informing pitch, rhythm, structure, and extended technique. To some extent, I lost control over the duration; I was a slave to the procedure. In a way, I was that man at the machine, fiddling with the controls…"

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