betê gabriel-rufael (2015)

For tenor saxophone, percussion and computer-controlled click track.

Commissioned by Scapegoat

Programme Note:

Bête Gabriel-Rufael is a thirteenth-century rock-hewn church, one of eleven such structures at the UNESCO world-heritage site in Lalibela, Ethiopia. The church jointly commemorates the saints Gabriel and Raphael (more familiar as archangels in the Western canon) and the idea of conjoinment informs bête rabriel-rufael (the piece). Here, two disparate instrumental identities –saxophone and percussion – are fused into a hybrid. A sonic common ground is forged in loops of shrieks and squeaks from frictional percussion and multiphonics, the tempos of which oscillate around oneanother (following a computer-controlled click-track, which is generated in real time). bête rabriel-rufael is part of a larger set of pieces, collectively entitled The Eleven Churches of Lalibela, which together explores issues of decay, space and place.

Duration:

Felxible. 6'+ minutes

Score Excerpt:

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