WNMD 2025 · CONCERT 13
Extraordinary Saxophone / Saxofone extraordinário
03-06-2025 · 18h00
Centro Cultural de Belém, Sala Luís de Freitas Branco
Lisbon
Bilheteira · Box Office (CCB)
GET-TOGETHER 3
Meeting with the Composers
17h30–18h00
Participants: [names to be announced]
Henrique Portovedo · saxophone
CHRISTOPHER BOCHMANN (UK, 1950)
Capriccio (2007), 6’
DÁNIEL PÉTER BIRÓ (Hungary, 1969)
Kilkul (Breakdown) (2024), 10’
Individual submission
DIOGO ALVIM (Portugal, 1979)
Music for Sax and Boxes (2012), 10’, WP (new version)
JONATHAN NANGLE (Ireland, 1981)
Artificial Blissful State (2016), 6’
ISCM Irish section
PAULO FERREIRA-LOPES (Portugal, 1964)
Three Short Pieces from The Darkness Book (2007), 8’
TILEN LEBAR (Slovenia, 1993) YCA
Hassan (2022), 11’
ISCM Slovenian section
YCA · ISCM Young Composers Award candidate
WP · world premiere
PROGRAMME NOTES
CHRISTOPHER BOCHMANN (UK, 1950)
Capriccio (2007), for soprano saxophone
— [Programme notes available soon]
DÁNIEL PÉTER BIRÓ (Hungary, 1969)
Kilkul (Breakdown) (2024), for alto saxophone in E-flat
Individual submission
— The Hebrew word Kilkul, meaning Breakdown, can also refer to spiritual problems and disorder. In the beginning, motivic elements “break down”, as their harmonic spectra and microtonal basis come to the aspects of perceptual foreground. In this process, the listener perceives the path of a person who slowly “recovers” from an initial state of panic to discover again, via a series of multiphonic harmonies, the basic source of sound production – the breath of life.
DIOGO ALVIM (Portugal, 1979)
Music for Sax and Boxes (2012), WP (new version)
— [Programme notes available soon]
JONATHAN NANGLE (Ireland, 1981)
Artificial Blissful State (2016), for baritone saxophone and electronics
ISCM Irish section
— Artificial Blissful State is a commentary on the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) within our daily lives, from voice-activated personal assistants on our mobile devices to home assistants, self-driving vehicles to online stores tracking our browsing history in an effort to “suggest” things that might be of interest to us based on search terms and past transactions. Here, an aggressive electronic track drives forward, unrelenting, unflinching, a steady pulse against which the saxophone plays their role, sometimes irregular and jarring, pushing against the tide of ‘progress’, sometimes slotting into place with ease, but never stemming the technological flow.
Addendum 2024: In the eight years since I wrote this piece, AI has become a hot topic with the rise of numerous platforms, such as Chat GPT and Stable Diffusion, and more recent applications, such as Sora, becoming mainstream and more widely available to the public. The speed at which these platforms have developed and evolved is mindblowing, and the applications are simultaneously exciting and deeply troubling. With the rise of the machines (forgive the analogy), the commentary embedded within my piece is even more prescient today than in 2016, when I was inspired to write this piece. Artificial Blissful State was commissioned by Gavin Brennan with funds generously provided by the Arts Council of Ireland.
PAULO FERREIRA-LOPES (Portugal, 1964)
Three Short Pieces from The Darkness Book (2007), for saxophone and electronics
— The Darkness Book is part of a four-book collection (diary), along with The Forgotten Book, The Luminescence Book, and The Visions Book. The four books serve as a diary, containing a vast reservoir of musical material drawn from daily emotions, visions, sounds, and other sensory experiences. In this process, writing is done intuitively, but the choice of the book is always guided by its title – each sound, feeling, or word is carefully placed within it. The Darkness Book evokes deeply personal experiences related to disruptive emotions and situations. The Darkness Book is dedicated to writing memories, where sadness and indignation intertwine with an incredulous perception of the world. These three pieces form a unified whole, with the core of their musical discourse centred on feelings of departure.
TILEN LEBAR (Slovenia, 1993) YCA
Hassan (2022), for saxophone and tape
ISCM Slovenian section
— Hassan is a composition that is more related to prose than poetry. The narrative way of developing musical material appears in the places where we expect it to be. For example, the “whistle tone” technique appears at first in the tape and later reveals itself in an acoustic form. Moreover, the prepared saxophone enables a quiet “unusual” expansion on natural spectral multiphonics, extremely introverted dynamics and a timbre that rarely appears within the contemporary repertoire for alto saxophone. The presence of the name Hassan itself constructs my social environment, as I live in a particular part of The Hague that is predominantly associated with the Moroccan community. This makes a connection that leads me to explore their cultural heritage and relationship within the community. The piece is dedicated to my long-time mentor and friend Matjaž Drevenšek.