(Re)Inventions

(Re)Inventions
for flute and soprano saxophone
or flute and oboe
or flute and clarinet
or clarinet and oboe
or clarinet and alto saxophone
or two clarinets
or bass clarinet and tenor saxophone
or any two saxophones in the same key
or saxophone quartet (NEW in 2023!)

Full Orchestra
String Orchestra
Wind Ensemble
Vocal
Chamber
Solo Instrumental

Commissioned by Centerline Duo: Gözde Çakır, flute and Ryan Ramsey, saxophone. Premiered at the 2017 North American Saxophone Alliance Region V conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

This work was written while I was serving as the composition fellow at the 2016 Bowdoin International Music Festival. The theme of the festival was (Re)Invention, suggesting that everything that we were doing as musicians, even though attached to a tradition that goes back hundreds of years, stays fresh in the present because we are constantly putting new perspectives into our art.

Inspired by this theme, I wrote this series of duos in the form of Baroque inventions using 21st century compositional techniques. The first movement consists mostly of a tight eighth-note canon between the duo, and the leader of the canon is constantly switching between instruments. It is simultaneously an inversion canon with an axis of symmetry around the pitches E and B flat. Towards the end, I slip in a direct quotation from one of J.S. Bach's famous keyboard inventions, only to be raucously interrupted by its mirror image one bar later.

The second movement is slow and more lyrical and significantly less strict in its construction. The two instruments' imitation is freer throughout. A quickly rustling figure that is partially improvised transports the music from calm and sustained to agitated and frenetic before the clarity of the opening returns.

The final movement is a collapsing canon, starting at an interval of four quarter notes. Over the course of the movement, this interval gradually shortens until it is only one quarter note at the end. Highly pointed rhythmic hocketing lends to this movement's groovy nature, and it becomes increasingly jazzy as it goes along.

Duration: ca. 8'30"

Note that there are many instrumentations - flute and soprano saxophone, flute and oboe, flute and clarinet, clarinet and alto saxophone, bass clarinet and tenor saxophone, and any two saxophones in the same key.

Listen to a performance by Centerline Duo - Gözde Çakır, flute and Ryan Ramsey, saxophone:

Listen to a recording by the Crescent Duo: Joanna Cowan White, flute, and Kennen White, clarinet.
Navigate between the three movements with the next and previous buttons at the bottom left, or by clicking the playlist button at the top right.

(Re)Inventions is currently self-published. You may purchase this work with the buttons below. If you need a quote for a purchase order, please contact me.

$25 for pdfs of duo versions, $60 for quartet versions