'Apollo and Artvark: Two Quartets Collide and Merge' (60’).
Ten octets for saxophone quartet
Includes saxophone octet composition 'The Sea Between' and performances of, performances of nine pieces including one from each member of the ensemble (except two from Bart Wirtz), and a piece/improvisation by the Artvark Quartet.
Apollo Saxophone Quartet: Rob Buckland, Carl, Raven, Andy Scott, Jim Fieldhouse
Artvark Saxophone Quartet: Rolf Delfros, Bart Wirtz, Mete Erker, Peter Broekhuizen
- 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
- 12A
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- HOME, Manchester
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- February
- Year of first performance
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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5 - Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘Two Quartets Collide & Merge’ is a collection of ten new compositions performed by the Apollo and Artvark saxophone quartets, each piece written by a different member of the ensembles. This submission pertains to my research in performance and engagement with composition and group devising as supporting elements.
As my research is focused on the intersection of jazz and classical performance practice, and on performer-composer collaboration, I was the driving force behind this project. It combined a quartet (Apollo) that approaches jazz from a primarily classical training, and Artvark, which approaches classical performance practice from the perspective of jazz training.
As a specialist in both classical and jazz performance practice and leader of the Apollo quartet, I assumed the role of chamber music leader/jazz director for all of these pieces. This included leading the octet in precise chamber music interactions (e.g., ‘The Sea Between’), and in guiding the ensemble decision-making in more flexible and jazz-focussed works (e.g. ‘Project X’ and ‘Dark, Disturbing, Yet Utterly Beautiful’), which vary considerably in each performance (scores and extracts included). This collection of works also explores the variety of timbral possibilities within the saxophone classical and jazz performance practice, which are often compartmentalised within the repertoire. The collaboration extends our collective composition, improvisation, devising and curation as the ten pieces demonstrate different facets of the groups’ performance practice and central aesthetic concerns, and some of the pieces require players to make creative decisions as part of a planning/devising process, and in the moment, as evidenced in ‘Project X’ and ‘Dark, Disturbing, Yet Utterly Beautiful’.
This project emerged from the two ensembles’ original 2014 collaboration and has been disseminated internationally through workshops and performances across the UK and the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019, broadcast on national radio, and commercially released on Oink Records in 2019.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
