Nov. 6 was the birthday of the saxophone’s inventor, Adolphe Sax, so it was quite fitting to have a saxophone concert the following weekend at Baldwin Auditorium.
On Nov. 10, Duke Music hosted a Faculty Recital called “New Creations.” The concert highlighted renowned classical soprano saxophonist Susan Fancher, lecturing fellow of music and a leading advocate of contemporary music. She performed five pieces: one solo, two in a duet and two in a quartet.
The music was riveting and diverse. The concert was a fantastic reminder during the height of my late-afternoon Sunday scaries that there is so much beauty to this world. Why worry about an essay when such wonderful music exists?
The concert began with a solo performance of Andrew Waggoner’s “Rêve de bougainvillées.” The piece started with whimsical short bursts of the saxophone, then grew more haunting throughout the song.
Next, pianist Ināra Zandmane joined Fancher for the next two pieces. Zandmane is one of North Carolina’s leading collaborative pianists and a staff accompanist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Together, they performed “Aria” from Jennifer Higdon’s opera “Cold Mountain.” A Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy winner, Higdon is one of the most performed American composers who are still composing music.
Fancher and Zandmane performed the piece to give Higdon a warm welcome, as she was in the audience, having recently moved to the Triangle area. As the duet began, one could immediately notice the remarkable difference between a performance with just the saxophone and a performance of a saxophone accompanied by a piano. The lovely song received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Next, Fancher and Zandame performed a sonata composed by Mark Engebretson, professor of composition and music technology at UNC-Greensboro and a member of the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet. The sonata had three parts: “In the Pocket,” “I look out on the day” and “The Directions.”
Engebretson walked on stage before the performance to introduce the piece. He explained how he based the sonata on three Brian Lampkin poems: “Wind in Pocket,” “The Wind” and “The Directions.” Engebretson described how the spirit of the poems were connected to the musical ideas of the piece.
Though it is hard to choose, I think this performance was my favorite of the concert. This piece felt encompassing of all emotions. In the beginning, it was fast and had an anxious tone. There were short and quick bursts from both the piano and the saxophone. Then it had a more airy, positive sound. After that, it slowed down with whooshing noises from the saxophone, and then it picked up again. The ending was more somber. I felt so many different experiences throughout this piece, and it kept me on my toes.
After an intermission, the entire Red Clay Saxophone Quartet joined the stage, featuring its members Susan Fancher, Mark Engebretson, Laurent Estoppey and Steven Stusek. They first performed “Every Thing Belongs,” a piece composed by Harriet Steinke, a composer-in-residence for the Detroit-based ensemble Virago who was also present at the concert. Steinke introduced the piece and explained how each movement’s title — “And again,” “Nothing new,” “Something holy” and “How we are spared” — is a nod to the people and things that influenced her music.
This piece relied on repetitions in order to evoke different emotions. In colloquial terms, the beginning of the piece just scratched my brain in just the right way. It was strong, loud and impactful. Then, it turned softer and almost sounded hopeful.
The last performance was the most unique. Performed by the quartet and composed by John Supko, the piece “Crossed Shadows” largely relied on technology. Supko created a poem with a computer by taking a one-sentence story and having a computer program swap the original words for vocabulary generated by Supko. Then, Supko read the poem out loud and derived pitches and rhythms from his recorded speech. Once he had the rhythmic framework of the poem recording, he shaped it into music.
The actual performance was two-fold — there was the percussion-dominated recording playing in the background accompanied by the live saxophone quartet. It was loud, chaotic and even antagonistic. Every time when it felt like the song was going one way, it would turn another direction. It captured attention.
As someone who never spends much time around Duke Music, this concert was a fascinating look into the work of this wonderful department. Now back on the Sunday grind, the saxophonic tunes are still ringing in my ears.
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