Circling Point

Circling Point by Charlotte Bray for alto saxophone and piano.

Commissioned by Johannes Thorell with funds from the Swedish Arts Council.

This work was composed in 2014 and first performed on 14 August 2014 in La Plata, Argentina, by Johannes Thorell (sax) and Matias Sköld (piano).

Programme Notes

Quietly sailing through a suspended landscape, Circling Point focuses on the timbre of the instruments in a slow, yet almost constantly pulsating, meditation. As if in one breath, the piece sees a gradual expansion of pitch and intensity. A whispered sotto voce line threads two voices together in a delicate and intimate dialogue where they are constantly influenced by the other. The material develops akin to a photo gradually emerging in a dark room. Tomas Transtromer's poem Ostinato resounds with the piece, which is where the title Circling Point is found.

• Charlotte Bray

Performance Notes

• The saxophone music in the piano part is notated at sounding pitch.
• In the saxophone part, diamond noteheads indicate an airy sound, but always with pitch.
• There should be a gradual transformation between articulations.
• The locations of the quarter-tone pitch bends may be taken to be approximate.

Duration: 10 minutes