Metasomatic: Portals (2021) for saxophone quartet

Metasomatic: Portals was premiered on October 3, 2021 at Constellation in Chicago, IL as part of the Ear Taxi Festival. See the archived livestream below!

Portals is the last piece written in the cycle of works, but rather than think of it as a finale, I see it like a module, another cog in the larger musical mechanics that flow throughout the five pieces. Obsessive trills are pushed to their limits, durations of gestural activity are stretched, distorted, transposed, transformed… In Portals improvisation takes a much more prominent role than in any of the other movements in the cycle. The majority of the time, players are trapped on a one-way trajectory of claustrophobic, frenetic chaos, save for a handful of moments when each one is allowed an outburst, to vent, to break free from the torrent for just a second, before being sucked back in. Echoes or premonitions of Metasomatic III appear at the end of the work, a startling juxtaposition of delicate energy that, in a paradoxical way, soothes the rage of the piece, highlighting a deeper dimension of the dynamic kaleidoscope of the cycle.

The piece was written in close collaboration with ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, who have been great friends and allies to me ever since their inception in 2017, when I wrote Apertures for them! I could NOT have done it without their guidance, advice, and insanely good sight-reading skills.