INSTRUMENTATION
saxophone quartet
DURATION
4′ 00″
Written for La’Ventus Quartet in memory of Helen Kastner-Kane.
Premiered November 21, 2013 by La’Ventus Quartet.
PROGRAM NOTES
This brief elegy in memory of Helen Kastner-Kane celebrates the life of an indefatigable woman. A physician, international traveler, and devoted matriarch, there was little she did not accomplish when determined to do so. In memory of her passing, this elegy weaves melodic motives from a recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish into a series of call-and-response gestures between all saxophones. The shifting minor melodies deftly maneuver between parts as one continuous line. Calls are repeated across the quartet, generating new colors with each passing. New timbres and resonance are explored as the motives progress. Primarily a gestural work, the mournful tone continues to build; cries, glissandi, and shimmering colors grow into a final climax that quickly disappears, leaving one final, solo statement.