Written for Brian Sacawa

Premiere:
4/23/05 Tenri Cultural Institute,
New York, NY, Brian Sacawa

Duration: 8'

Program Note:

In Voice within Voice, the saxophone is treated as a megaphone for the performer’s singing and breathing. The piece starts exclusively with inhalation. As the work proceeds, two changes emerge. First, the voiced inhalations are balanced by voiced exhalation. The teeth and lips of the saxophonists come into play, so that the piece moves from singing to a complex combination of singing, playing, and wailing. The end of the work focuses on exhalation and the timbres that arise from the player’s teeth on the reed of the instrument. We witness a journey from the inside of the performer’s body to its very extremities.