- Commissioned by duality: Vanessa Sielert, saxophone and Catherine Anderson, piano
- Instrumentation: alto saxophone, piano
- Approximate duration: 8-10min, varies widely
- Difficulty: advanced
- Only digital/PDF files are provided upon checkout
Who am I?
For many, this can life’s defining question and seeking its answer is the ultimate quest. For me, part of this question’s beauty is simple and rather obvious, woven into its inherent individualistic nature: everyone is unique so everyone’s answer will be unique. More interesting to me, though, is that how everyone responds and reacts to this question is just as unique. On the extreme ends, some are able to answer this question about themselves confidently, while others nearly experience anxiety-induced paralysis just thinking about it. And more beguiling is that each individual might answer this question differently for themselves at any given point in time – whether across the years or within the same day. When stepping back and recognizing this, the exploration of the question becomes more important than the answer… and in many ways, it is the answer. For me (and I suspect most people), “Who am I?” is unanswerable in a finite sense, and this piece of music doesn’t set out to answer the question but rather celebrate the beauty embedded within its pursuits.
This work was written with the intention of a joint exploration and collaboration between performers. There are a number of ‘X’ time signature sections which can simply be interpreted as “free”. Reviewing the printed piano part will provide just one interpretation of how each part might line up with one another, and the performers are encouraged to truly approach the music freely in every manner. Even outside these “free” sections, performers should experiment and make the music (and perhaps even each performance) their own. This may include alterations to tempo, dynamics, and phrasing, or it may include more substantial embellishments.