« Quatuor de Saxophones »
« Saxophone Quartet »

To the Daniel Deffayet Quartet
1974
Duration : 13 minutes

The « Saxophone Quartet » was composed in 1974, at Daniel Deffayet’s request for his Quartet.
Its first public performance was given on 6 July 1974 within the context of the International Congress of Saxophone which took place in Bordeaux (France).
Since then it has been performed many times all around the world and was recorded by several radios : in Tokyo, in Oslo, three times in Radio-France etc.
It was also adapted for clarinet quartet.
This work is divided into five short movements, each distinctively characterized, which have no particular connection with each other.
Rather than refering to any classical tradition, under the influence of concrete and electronic music, they have in common that they above all deal with sound material and tone-colour.
The music stretches out from the lowest to highest pitches.
Different manners to instrumentally support a note and make it last, either while varying tone-colours, or thickening or slenderizing the sounds, are exploited.
Generally speaking the character of this music is tense and causing anguish.
About this Quartet, the Norwegian music critic Bodil Johanne Jensen speaks of a kind of « musical suspense ».

Publisher : E.F.M.
Distributor : Billaudot

Back