Music of Anthony Green

Website(s) : http://www.nealpostma.com / http://www.anthonyrgreen.com

Two works that explore how highly independent lines can weave in and out of each other to create textural counterpoint. The piece Verbinding will be a world premiere.

Biography

Saxophonist Neal Postma currently resides in Guangzhou, China. He holds an MM from the Cincinnati Conservatory and a BM from the University of Colorado. Having performed throughout the US and Asia Neal has an emphasis on contemporary music having commissioned over a dozen solo and chamber works. Neal approaches all music as if it were new, finding new interpretations of even the most standard works. As endorsing artist for P. Mauriat and RICO Reeds, he performs exclusively on their products.

American composer Anthony Green currently lives in Leiden, Netherlands where is a free-lance composer. His music has been performed in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Creating something new while still leaving compositional fingerprint is goal with each new piece Anthony composes.

More information

We will present two works by Anthony Green; the world premier of Verbinding and Weightless (2011), both for saxophone and piano. The idea of this program is present the music of a composer who is new and upcoming in the saxophone medium.

From the composer on “Verbinding”

The commissioned work entitled Verbinding (for saxophone and piano) will explore themes of micro and macro counterpoint of extended techniques and sound worlds. Verbinding means “connection” in Dutch, but can also mean “combination”. These two themes will be the foundation to explore how sound textures (created both with the instruments as well as with the human voice) can weave in and out of each other, both supporting each other while remaining lucid to the listener. Consequently, there will be moments of soli for both players involved. Furthermore, because of the nature of exploring textural counterpoint, there will be a light element of musical theater, making the piece completely comprehensible only under the auspices of a live performance. This significant work will extend the rather specific exploration of gestural counterpoint with which I worked in a previous piece for saxophone and piano entitled Weightless.

From the Composer on “Weightless”

While the “Nicht Zart” nomenclature appears here as a subtitle, it is still very much a part of this series of works dedicated to and/or borrowing intellectually from my favorite composers. Weightless is based off of Pre-Amnesia, by Lee Hyla – a short, psychedelic work for unaccompanied saxophone. Unlike the previous works in this series, Lee Hyla was
a teacher of mine at the New England Conservatory. He taught me first and foremost to think about pitch critically, and I learned various creative approaches from his pedagogy and from a familiarity with his works. The pitch/rhythm content of this piece is Hyla-esque, yet incorporates many of my typical pitch organizations. It also is firmly routed in my timbral voice, incorporating many techniques in similar ways as I’ve used in previous wind works. The title refers to the “suspended” quality that the piece has – it should feel as if it is constantly circling in a celestial body, and never descends, yet never moves much higher or lower than its position. Yet, there is a definite pitch goal associated with this work, a goal to a pitch that also floats in a homogeneous ether of variegated rhythms and sounds. This work was first premiered 30 November 2011 in a “Suspensions”-themed concert, part of the Pendulum New Music Series at CU Boulder, with Benjamin Sorrell (saxophone) and the composer (piano).