Repexus
for 12 saxophones

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Commissioned by Kenneth Radnofsky and the Boston Conservatory Saxophone Ensemble, and premiered by the ensemble with Michael Sakir conducting on November 12, 2007 in Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, Boston.

Notes

Repexus was composed for Ken Radnofsky, Eric Hewitt and the Boston Conservatory Saxophone Ensemble in the fall of 2007. When Eric first asked me to compose the piece, I was immediately struck by the possibilities and challenges posed by such an instrumental combination and, in particular, its potential for timbral homogeneity and harmonic density. The title is a Latin word which means “combed out” or untangled, and the piece traces various sorts of untangling and re-arranging – of melodic and harmonic materials as well as instrumental identities. Solo lines and small ensembles are lost in or subsumed by dense tutti chords or contrapuntal complexes, which are in turn separated out into their component parts to reveal new relationships and roles.