Niels Rosing-Schow: Alliage I: Tenor Saxophone: Score

Alliage (Alloy) I (2009) for Tenor Saxophone and Classical Accordion by Niels Rosing-Schow. Programme Note The two instuments of this duo have some common features i.e. is the tone in both cases produced by air.The air is activated by the lungs of the saxophone player and by the bellow of the accordion. The stream ofair makes a blade of respectively wood and metal vibrate. Both instruments are also associated with thepopular musical tradition. But nevertheless the differences regarding the sound are more prominent thanthe similarities and contrary to the monophonic saxophone (a ’melody’ instrument) theaccordion is apolyphonic instrument which can produce several simultanious melodic lines and chords. At first glance this might call for a music which distributes distinct even contrasting musical roles to thetwo instruments such as melody versus accompaniment. But I refrain from this obvious ‘casting’ since Ihave always been fascinated by the less evident by transitions and gradual displacement by the intangibleplaces between one and the other. I search for this ‘terrain vague’ of fruitfull incertainty and permanentgenesis. To arrive here I have in this piece written a music which makes the possible relations and sonorous pathscome forward between the sound worlds of the two instruments. Bringing together the musical substances I look for an ‘air-driven’ musical organism with a glossy and shining appearance. The lively and brightsound world I associate to alloys in particular the silvery amalgamations of mercury. Niels Rosing-Schow