The Skin of Night, für Sopran-/Alt-Saxophone und Klavier

The Skin of Night was written between September 2005 and March 2006. This fifteen-minute work falls into two sections, delineated timbrally by the change from soprano to alto saxophone at measure 92. 

The germinal motivic ideas that unfold at the opening of the piece, specifically the harmonic interval of a minor second, and the melodic intervals of a rising seventh/falling second and a falling third, provide the basic chordal and melodic building blocks for the piece. These motivic cells engender, among other things, melodic sequences that display an underlying background motion in seconds, and stacked thirds that combine into different major and minor triads played simultaneously by the left and right hands of the piano.

Three seminal rhythmic ideas that occur at the opening also provide material for the work. The first is a single repeated note in the saxophone. This idea appears in various guises over the course of the piece, sometimes as single notes in both instruments, sometimes as full chords in the piano. The second idea is that of syncopation between the saxophone and piano, a rhythmic process that assumes great importance in the work. The third idea is formal in nature, consisting of the alternation between relatively long note values and chains of rapidly moving notes. In its first appearance here at the opening, this alternation differentiates, the formal role of measures one to four from that of measures five to six.

This work was commissioned by the Harrington/Loewen Duo, with financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.