works
Kinetochore
for tenor saxophone
Duration: ca. 5'15"
Kinetochore: The clear constricted portion of the chromosome at which the chromatids are joined and by which the chromosome is attached to the spindle during cell division. (Source: Unified Medical Language System, National Institutes of Health)
This piece, although it is for a single instrument, really contains two conflicting musical worlds. Over the course of the piece, they gradually commingle and have a brief moment of contact, before again drifting further and further away from each other, never to meet again. While the melodic material of each world remains distinct and separate�though closely related�the tonal centers, dynamics, and rhythm all change over time, to reflect their respective motions toward and away from each other. Clearly, though, both world-lines cannot be tracked at the same time on an instrument like the saxophone; instead, they are heard in a sort of question-and-answer fashion, like a schizophrenic having a conversation with himself. The emergence of each "personality", or musical world, is sudden and violent�their fleeting contact is the only stable point in the entire piece.