Mikel Kuehn - Works
Intersections & Resonances (2000), for alto saxophone, violin, and piano
(Christopher Blossom, sax; Monika Chamasyan, violin; Marina Chamasyan, piano)
Program Note
Intersections & Resonances was commissioned for the 2000 World Saxophone Congress (Montreal, Canada) and was premiered there by John Sampen (alto saxophone), Maria Sampen (violin), and Marilyn Shrude (piano). While this work features the saxophone more than the other instruments, its general sound-space was conceived not as solo versus accompaniment, but as one large integrated instrument capable of multiple timbres. The title is derived from two aspects of the work’s musical surface texture traits: “intersections” refers to the many doublings and collisions that occur between instruments; “resonances” describes textural and timbral devices which prolong, amplify, and/or enhance particular sonorities within and between instruments. These two terms also hint at a transformation of harmonic material which occurs across the work’s approximately eleven minute duration – the material starts with “dense” sonorities (e.g., clusters) and ends with “open” sonorities (e.g., 5ths and 4ths). In the middle of the piece these two harmonic characters intersect.