"Superinstrument No 3 (Movement I: Troubadour)" for Saxophone Quartet by Joshua Haugen

https://joshuahaugen.com/

Performed by the ~Nois Saxophone Quartet

https://www.noissaxophone.com/

Julian Velasco, Soprano Saxophone
Hunter Bockes, Alto Saxophone
Jordan Lulloff, Tenor Saxophone
János Csontos, Baritone Saxophone

The idea of a Superinstrument is one in which the individuality of each player of an ensemble is removed, and where all voices act as one or as a means to a compositional end. Such creates something greater and more timbrally and sonically complex than the sum of its parts. Each piece in this series explores their respective Superinstrument as though it were performed by solo player, capable of much more than any single instrument.

Superinstrument No. 3 for saxophone quartet is one of my favorite entries into this series, and one that maps an abstract evolution from an “early music” to the modern day. The work is dedicated to the Nois Saxophone Quartet, who premiered the first movement.

In Movement I: Troubadour, I imagine a budding, passionate troubadour walking the streets of Europe in the 1100s. All of the sudden, they turn the corner of their favorite baker, stumbling upon a “superinstrument”, comprised of four saxophonists into one whole. Enraptured and lured in by the sheer majesty of the instrument, the troubadour picks it up and begins to play. I imagine this movement – with its intense polyrhythms, asymmetric poetic structure, and long, melismatic lyricism – as both the result of this abstract experimentation of the troubadour as well as a sample of “early music” of the “superinstrument”.