In this music, I attempted to capture the spirit of film noir from the 1930s and 40s.  The rugged, angular, and at times, sleazy characters in films like The Killing, The Third Man, and Rope provided the impetus for many of the musical gestures in this work.  Using the various characteristics of the saxophone quartet, such as fluid lines, forced articulations, and other jazz idioms allowed me to create many of the expressions found in the films of this genre.

Catalogue No. 04016

I. Of shadows and intrigues
From out of the shadows enter two bullies, represented by the two largest saxophones. Using fast scales and incisive articulations, these bullies provoke and tease the other two smaller saxes. After several variations ensue including a swing from the Big-Band era, the tenor sax makes a final defiant statement followed by a collective fury to the end.

 

II. Façades
In film noir, the women characters=2 0were represented as beautiful, but deceptive, often manipulating the male characters by using sexual charm. As suggested in the title this work begins with a sweet, gentle melody played by the soprano saxophone. This melody leads to a hymn which will be transformed throughout the work. As this hymn grows jubilant, the alto saxophone breaks away from the rest, playing at a fast-swing. This in turn affects the hymn which is no longer reverent. Slow moving and using “blue-notes” a New Orleans dirge picks up speed and the baritone sax gets a solo, not without stubborn interruptions from the tenor, which takes us into the final, and down-right nasty, variation of the hymn.

 

III. Hard-boiled
Driven by a motor-like ostinato, the beginning of this movement features the soprano and alto saxophones in boisterous, seemingly improvised solos. The middle section uses mixed-meters and canonic devices to create a whimsical and spontaneous atmosphere. After a final declamatory gesture the music resumes, now cast in a swing tempo, and carefully gains momentum, recalling many of the themes found earlier in this movement.