'SET' (2014), concerto for tenor saxophone and orchestra (23’)
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 13A
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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1 - Composition
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘SET’ was written as a result of a long-term collaborative interaction with the soloist, Iain Ballamy and my investigations into new musical forms and expressive vocabularies that might emerge from the collision and cohabitation of processes drawn from different art forms, different generic and stylistic worlds, and from different performance traditions. In precise terms, the very name ‘SET’ refers to both the formal structures of post war serialism that inform much of the melodic and harmonic structure of the piece and the presentational convention of a standard jazz performance, or ‘gig’.
Improvisation is key to the journey of ‘SET’ and utilises several improvisational strategies from both classical and jazz traditions. From the classical avant-garde come its linear- and free-improvisation processes, and its structuring around ghost chords and pitch-class sets, while jazz traditions, especially improvisation on the model of a ‘standard’, inform much of the solo line. The two traditions ultimately elide in an unaccompanied, free cadenza that links the fourth and fifth movements, encapsulating the meeting of classical and jazz concertante models. Inherent within the piece is a compositional paradox that underlies the interaction of the two traditions: that which is least ‘composed’ generates the greatest level of cohesion between seemingly unconnected modes of musical thought and this in turn reflects yet subverts the superficial contradiction in the double meaning of the title. The titles of each movement add another layer of meaning in terms of atmosphere (rather than description) and acknowledge another type of ‘set’, one that came with a cathode ray.
‘SET’ was premièred in 2014 at the Bridgewater Hall with Iain Ballamy (tenor saxophone), HK Gruber (conductor), and the BBC Philharmonic broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. It is released on Nimbus Alliance by Iain Ballamy and the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Clark Rundell.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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