Exercices (2017)
soprano saxophone, oboe, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon
c. 7 minutes
Commissioned by the Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project
Premiered by Splinter Reeds
Fountain Arts Building, Dublin, NH, 14 July 2017
c. 7 minutes
Commissioned by the Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project
Premiered by Splinter Reeds
Fountain Arts Building, Dublin, NH, 14 July 2017
Movements:
I. Inattendu
II. Ode
I first came across Raymond Queneau’s Exercices de style (1947) in a bookstore in Boulder this past spring. Although I did not purchase the book during the visit, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and ended up buying a tattered old copy from Amazon less than a month later. Queneau’s text tells the story of a man on a bus who watches another man interact with one of the other passengers. The narrator later sees the same man getting advice on adding a button to his overcoat. Not content to tell this story only once, Queneau recounts in ninety-nine times, each time in a different style.
This piece has very little to do with Queneau’s narrative. However, my early encounter with the text in the Boulder bookstore sparked the creation of this piece, and Queneau’s reimaginings of the same story somehow reminds me of the two movements of my own Exercices.
Purchase Splinter Reed's Hypothetical Islands album here!
I. Inattendu
II. Ode
I first came across Raymond Queneau’s Exercices de style (1947) in a bookstore in Boulder this past spring. Although I did not purchase the book during the visit, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and ended up buying a tattered old copy from Amazon less than a month later. Queneau’s text tells the story of a man on a bus who watches another man interact with one of the other passengers. The narrator later sees the same man getting advice on adding a button to his overcoat. Not content to tell this story only once, Queneau recounts in ninety-nine times, each time in a different style.
This piece has very little to do with Queneau’s narrative. However, my early encounter with the text in the Boulder bookstore sparked the creation of this piece, and Queneau’s reimaginings of the same story somehow reminds me of the two movements of my own Exercices.
Purchase Splinter Reed's Hypothetical Islands album here!
