Baltakas: Saxordionphonics, for soprano saxophone, accordion and chamber orchestra

Saxordionphonics was composed at the request of Teodoro Anzellotti and Marcus Weiss, with the support of Harry Vogt. As the title suggests, the piece is about a sound resulting from the specific colour and articulation properties of saxophone and accordion, reinforced and extended by the orchestra.

The work is founded on two structural principles. The first is a strictly rhythmical construct of two to three permuting notes which paces through the entire piece, forming a structural basis, with temporal distensions and condensations, dynamic and colorific variations. The other is a freer level which reacts musically to the first. It is especially scored for solo instruments; it is here where the musical development takes place, the relationship between the levels playing a dramaturgical part. They influence each other, the stronger one transforming the weaker one, when they are not actually rivalling.

For me, it was as if I were observing a shadow-play in space; depending on the time of day, the direction and strength of the light, perception of the space changes, as if the walls and the strict architectonic structure were mobile.

Vykintas Baltakas

Translated by Grant Chorley