Concert with Kodachrome
Calvin Wong, soprano saxophone
Jade Deatherage, alto saxophone
Siobhan Plouffe, tenor saxophone
Bonson Lee, baritone saxophone
PROGRAM
speed metal organum blues (2004)
Gregory Wanamaker (b. 1968)
Crisantemi (1890)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
arr. Christoph Enzel
Flight of Icarus (2012)
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969)
Icarus Ascending
Daedalus Mourns
The Mechanics, Six from the Shop Floor (2013)
Carter Pann (b. 1972)
Hoist
Drive Train
Belt
Flywheel
Balance
Trash
~ INTERMISSION ~
Kodachroma (2023)
Jenni Watson (b. 1985)
*world premiere*
Mysterious Morning II (1996)
Fuminori Tanada (b. 1961)
They Might Be Gods (2009)
John Leszczynski (b. 1987)
Memory from Nepomuk’s Dances (2002)
Marcelo Zarvos (b. 1969)
arr. Darius Mackie
PROGRAM NOTES
Gregory Wanamaker: speed metal organum blues
speed metal organum blues is exactly what the title suggests. “speed metal organum” refers to the fast-paced succession of open-fifth “power chords” found in speed metal music—and the strange notion that this music may have evolved from thirteenth-century organum composed by monks on speed. “blues” refers to the single 12-bar blues reference in the middle.
Gregory Wanamaker’s (b. 1968) music explores and extends the unique timbral qualities of instruments and voices while maintaining lyric and dramatic characteristics commonly associated with works of earlier eras and contemporary popular music. Recent reviews of his award-winning music in Fanfare Magazine, American Record Guide, and Audiophile Audition have described his music as “compelling,” “skillful,” “outstanding,” “cuttingedge,” and “a technical tour de force.” The recipient of numerous awards and commissions, Wanamaker’s music has been performed worldwide and can be heard on the innova, Albany, Summit, White Pine, Mark Custom, and KCM labels.
gregorywanamaker.com
- Prism Quartet, “Dedication”, 2011
Giacomo Puccini: Crisantemi
In January 1890, Puccini received word of the death of his friend Prince Amadeo di Savoia (Duca d’Aosta and King of Spain (1870–1873)). In a single evening, he composed an elegy for string quartet in memory of his friend, titling it Crisantemi (“Chrysanthemums”), the name of the traditional Italian flower of mourning.
Around the same time, possibly in 1890 as well, Puccini also wrote Tre Minuetti (“Three Minuets”) for string quartet. The first minuet was dedicated to Augusta Vittoria di Borbone, Princess of Capua; the second to “the distinguished violinist” Augusto Michelangeli; and the third to the conductor Paolo Carignani, Puccini’s lifelong friend.
While Crisantemi is by far the most programmed of Puccini’s quartet pieces, it is not often noted that it is intimately related to the lesser known Tre Minuetti. Superficially, all four pieces are for string quartet; all were composed at about the same time early in Puccini’s career, before his most celebrated operas; all are dedicated to people of note that Puccini was close to; and all, unsurprisingly, share the common ternary A-B-A thematic structure. But the deeper relationship of all four pieces only becomes apparent when we consider that, between 1890 and 1893, Puccini was composing Manon Lescaut, the opera that gave him his first great success.
Whatever the chronological relationship of the string pieces to one another and to the opera, it is indisputable that thematic material from all four quartet pieces shows up prominently in the opera. Puccini used parts of the first and third minuets in Act II; the first theme of the second minuet was transformed into the orchestral introduction for the opera; and some of the most poignant moments in Acts III and IV of Manon Lescaut are based on themes from Crisantemi.
But before the opera – before the book, the libretto, the costumes, the scenery – in the string quartet works alone there is still an operatic magic in this music. Listening to Crisantemi, it is not necessary to envision the prison duet between the ill-fated lovers when the second theme is introduced, or, while listening to Crisantemi’s first theme, to imagine Manon and des Grieux wandering to their death in the Louisiana wilderness.
Even without the story, this music comes across as dramatic narrative – as operatic.
- Stephen Soderberg, “Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival”, 2019
Stacy Garrop: Flight of Icarus
One of the first pieces I ever composed was a short saxophone quartet named Soaring Eagle. I was eighteen and played the alto saxophone in high school, so it was quite natural to write a piece that my marching band classmates could play. While that early work has long been forgotten, I have always remembered feeling exhilarated at hearing those four saxophones dipping and weaving around each other as they played the piece’s main theme. When the Capitol Quartet commissioned me for a new work, I decided to revisit the topic of soaring, to see if I could capture the essence of exhilaration once again. Additionally, I recently wrote a choir piece on the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. One of the poems, Not They Who Soar, came to mind as I began this piece; the haunting theme of that setting serves as the basis for the musical material.
Flight of Icarus is based on the Greek legend of Daedalus, an architect and engineer, and his son Icarus. On the island of Crete, Daedalus had built a maze for King Minos. Minos imprisoned a Minotaur (a half-bull, half-human creature) within the maze and annually sacrificed fourteen Athenians to the creature. Being an Athenian himself, Daedalus was upset with this arrangement and helped another king to successfully navigate the maze and kill the Minotaur. Minos sent his army after Daedalus in retaliation, but Daedalus was prepared. He and his son Icarus affixed wings crafted of wax and feathers to their backs and took to the sky. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low, so the waters would not weigh down the feathers, nor too high for the sun to melt the wax. Icarus, however, was so elated with the thrill of flying that he drew too close to the sun. The wax melted, and Icarus fell to his watery demise.
Flight of Icarus consists of two movements. Icarus Ascending follows Icarus’ flight toward the sun and subsequent fall; Daedalus Mourns depicts a father’s grief for his lost son.
- Stacy Garrop, 2012
Carter Pann: The Mechanics (Six from the Shop Floor)
Carter Pann composed The Mechanics in 2013 at the rustic MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, as a commission for the Capitol Quartet. Pann describes "picturing all four gentlemen of the Capitol Quartet to be dressed as old-time auto mechanics, smudged with grit and grease, performing in the middle of my brother's taxicab stand (which is also a full-service auto shop with two hydraulic lifts)." The six movements are titled: "Hoist," "Drive Train," "Belt," Flywheel," "Balance" and "Trash." Pann was later named one of two finalists for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in music for submitting The Mechanics.
- Theodore Presser Company, 2015
Jenni Watson: Kodachroma
*world premiere*
Commissioned by Kodachrome, this piece is inspired by the ensemble’s name. This short lively groove-based work conjures up kaleidoscopic images of changing colours, shifting patterns, strobing iridescence, and shimmering light reflections.
- Jenni Watson, 2023
Fuminori Tanada: Mysterious Morning II
Mysterious Morning II is the second in a series of four evocative pieces of the same title: Mysterious Morning I for solo harp, Mysterious Morning III for solo soprano saxophone, Mysterious Morning III for solo soprano saxophone, and Mysterious Morning IV for two harps and ensemble. This piece was dedicated to the award winning saxophone quartet Quatuor Habanera, which dives into the realm of saxophone ensemble sonority feet first, producing many startling effects made by extended techniques that can only be made by these instruments. Mysterious Morning II also has the benefit of being a mysterious, atmospheric, and vaguely spiritual piece without being new agey. The piece starts off with all members of the quartet on soprano saxophones, and eventually transitions into the standard Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone (SATB) instrumentation. Unlike standard works, this piece does not have a melody, but rather explores different sounds and effects to create a soundscape that can politically, directly, or figuratively translate to a “mysterious morning”.
- Uncle Dave Lewis, 2023, Holly Christine De Caigny, 2020
John Leszczynski: They Might Be Gods
They Might Be Gods is a kind of lucid dream for saxophone quartet. At times exciting and others sarcastic, this virtuosic piece tumbles through a strange landscape with blurry edges and unexpected apparitions.
- John Leszczynski, 2009
Companion Poem by Claire Ensley
Awake.
A rustle, a snap
Footsteps and shadows and
Eyes
Seeing, unseen.
Pursuit.
Chasing or chased,
It's unclear. Running
Just run
Run
Run. Until
Tripping, trapped.
Your quest, sir?
Yes, a quest.
A quest and a map and a bear.
A dancing bear?
Twirls, too delicately
Faster. Faster, then fading.
Gone.
Falling.
Falling, sveltely.
Look-Raindrops!
Tiny gleaming globes
Falling too
Falling, faster
The ground-but no collision.
And light.
Asleep?
Light-Somewhere far?
No.
Watching lanterns
Through a glass darkly.
And seen face to face
They might be gods
Marcelo Zarvos: Memory from Nepomuk’s Dances
Marcelo Zarvos is a Brazilian-born musician, who began as a student of classical music, but now works primarily in jazz and film scoring. Zarvos’ recent work includes the scores for Golden Globe-winning The Affair and Ray Donovan as well as the Oscar nominated film Fences. Originally written for the ETHEL String Quartet, Memory was first performed on saxophones by the Kenari Quartet. Throughout the work, Zarvos makes contrasts between minimalism and energetic folk songs by utilizing dance rhythms and interweaving textures.
- Aruna Quartet, 2019
ENSEMBLE BIOGRAPHY
Kodachrome is a multi award-winning saxophone quartet founded by four graduate students from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Since forming in 2022, Kodachrome has performed and competed throughout the US receiving 1st Prizes in the 10th Coltman Chamber Music Competition, 10th Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and the Gold Medal at the 50th Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. In August 2023, Kodachrome was invited as an ensemble representing the U.S. to perform in the Chengdu International Sister City Music Festival held in Chengdu, China. In September 2023, Kodachrome performed and taught throughout the Midwest during the Double Gold Tour, which was sponsored by the Fischoff Chamber Music Association. Throughout the tour, Kodachrome performed at universities, colleges, soirees, junior high, and high schools in states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Kodachrome was also a featured ensemble on WFMT as a part of the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series held in Chicago, Illinois.
Kodachrome enjoys playing all genres of music, with focus on collaborating with composers that move the instrument forward and provide enriching experiences for audiences. Every fall semester, Kodachrome participates in the annual Prisms Contemporary Music Festival held at ASU, where the quartet collaborates with contemporary composers and premieres new works written for the saxophone quartet and various chamber ensembles with the saxophone. The quartet is dedicated to sharing their music within the Greater Phoenix Area and abroad, building a strong community through music. Kodachrome has upcoming performances in Phoenix and several tours throughout the U.S. for the 2023/2024 season and is looking forward to sharing their music with many audiences. Founding members of Kodachrome are Calvin Wong on soprano saxophone, Jade Deatherage on alto saxophone, Siobhan Plouffe on tenor saxophone, and Bonson Lee on baritone saxophone.