PURGATORIUM

for saxophone quartet | 11’ 30” | 2022

Dedicated to Lucerna Quartet

Instrumentation - Soprano Saxophone | Alto Saxophone | Tenor Saxophone | Baritone Saxophone

Internationally premiered by Lucerna Quartet (Sophia Elger [sop. sax], Rosemary Ball [alto sax], Nicole Micheli [ten. sax] & Emilija Auškalnytė [bari. sax]) in 2023 at the Royal College of Music in London.

difficulty

Advanced

(Techniques used include slap-tonguing, air sounds, key clicks, and growling)

movements

I. With Fervor - II. Barren of Life - III. Hellish Rumbling

Program Note

PURGATORIUM outlines the journey of a troubled soul, lost to its greed and wicked ways. In the first movement, the ensemble explores its misgivings, and its descent further and further into madness; eventually becoming so disjointed with itself that it falls into a sudden emptiness: purgatory. Here, in the second movement, the ensemble finds itself lost in an unnerving, yet vastly unfamiliar place, devoid of sense or harmony. Wailing flurries emerge from the unknown, pulling the soul down to the depths of a fiery, seething, lashing third act. In this third movement, the music rumbles in an uncontainable fury, and the flurries lash back at the soul, pulling it further from redemption. In the end, we see the soul’s eventual fate…and it’s not pretty. That is what the purgatorium brings.