Saxophilia Celebrates Canadian Composers

STRIDE: Metamorphosis. ARCHER: Divertimento. FERREIRA: Nightmare Fragments. SHARMAN: Homage to Robert Schumann. BRANTER: Four Stories / Saxophilia Saxophone Qrt: Julia Nolan, s-sax; Kris Covlin, a-sax; David Branter, t-sax; Colin MacDonald, bar-sax / Redshift Records, limited edition, no number

The Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet was founded in Vancouver in 1996, and here they are presenting a program that consists entirely of works by modern Canadian composers: Fred Stride, Violet Archer, Beatrice Ferreira, Rodney Sharman and David Branter. Aside from the generally fine quality of the music, what impressed me most about Saxophilia is that each member of the group has a GREAT tone, rich and full. I have no idea if any of them ever played jazz, but whether they played it or not I suspect that they listened to some of the best jazz sax players. At the very least, I’ve not heard a single professional European classical alto, tenor or baritone saxist who have such opulent timbres, so my hat’s off to them. In addition, they play with great fluidity, meaning that the music “moves” in a slithery, almost insinuating way, as well as gusto, something else that most classical saxists simply do not (or at least will not) do.

Stride’s Metamorphosis, in four movements, is largely dependent on its rhythmic figures, including changes of meter and asymmetric patterns, to make its effect. The second movement in particular is a classical tango, and I can assure you that Stride’s music is far more interesting and diverse in both rhythm and harmony than those by the vastly overrated Astor Piazzola. By and large, each movement of Metamorphosis is a “fun” piece, a great way to start off the album.

In Canada, at least, the late Violet Archer (1913-2000) is such an icon that even an indie Toronto rock band named themselves after her. She gained her education across the border, here in the U.S.A., studying at Yale University as well as with Paul Hindemith and Bela Bartók, expatriates from their home countries thanks to the Nazis. In this piece, at least, Archer’s music is surprisingly tame for someone who had that educational background. The rhythms are more regular than Stride’s and the harmonies fairly conventional, harking back more to Frederick Delius than Bartók or Hindemith. It’s a very nice, happy piece, but not all that complex.

Beatrice Ferreira (1992 – ) is a young composer who also writes in a contrapuntal style. Her music takes more chances than in the Archer work, particularly with its shifting rhythmic accents, but although it is also quite charming it seemed to me more concerned with effect than in the Stride work, the second movement being the most interesting. This opens with a few sporadic notes played by different members of the quartet before moving into an ostinato figure played on one note by the alto while the other three weave asymmetric figures around it. The third movement plays around with rhythm rather freely, but its different sections struck me as somewhat disconnected from each other. I did, however, really like the succeeding movement, in which Ferreira has fun playing with her disconnected figures in a way that consistently holds the listener’s attention. So parts of it are quite good and some parts not so much.

I was, however, completely captivated by Sharman’s Homage to Robert Schumann, which uses the older composer’s “Auf einer Berg” as the basis for an extraordinarily creative piece of his own invention. One might say, honestly, that Sharman captures the spirit of Schumann without being too literal to the letter of the older score.

According to the publicity sheet for this album, Branter’s Four Stories “purposely” pulls together various elements of all the works that preceded it, but it doesn’t say whether or not these pieces were composed expressly for this album. Whether they were or not, however, Branter reveals a very clever musical mind that can interweave various strands of melodic material and different rhythms and accents into a comprehensible whole. In addition, there is a surprisingly jazzy “break.” immediately followed by some microtonal passages. A very eclectic, fun piece.

In short, none of this is profound music (although the Sharman comes close), but all of it is interesting and well worth hearing.

—© 2023 Lynn René Bayley

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