With the world premiere of my miniature Beryllium for tenor saxophone, in my Elements series, on June 4th at 7:00PM EST (shoutout Drew Hosler, who will be performing my work!). I am making this entry into my series of blog posts about musical miniatures. 

To say the work of Edgard Varese has had an enormous influence on my music is an understatement. I often make subtle references to his music in my compositions. Take the below example from his work Density 21.5 for solo flute. The opening motive, F-E-F# (alternatively, [0,e,1] or any of its permutations) is, in my opinion, a wonderful use of symmetry – reflecting across the pitch-axis of the first note, a half step below and then above that pitch.

I often use this motive directly in my music. I sometimes use an expanded form, following this pattern through a twelve-tone row.

Other times, I use the idea by taking a musical motive, and repeating it down a semitone, and then up a semitone from the original. Take the following example from Beryllium:

This technique permeates the whole piece. I also really love the low honks which saxophones are capable of. These are heard throughout the work.

It’s always fun writing for a virtuoso (and new-music specialist!) like Hosler. They always seem to find a way to make difficult passages sound effortless. Hosler will be giving the world premiere performance of the anthropocene extinction for solo baritone saxophone later this year. He also premiered Lithium and Saxharp!