A co-commission with PRISM Quartet; a joyful reunion, revisiting our (Grammy-winning!) combination of saxophones and voices in a work that sets the two groups in a sustained, engaging dialogue, as Martin ponders his life from the vantage point of age:
Now a much older man, I imagine that the texts I read [at 17, living alone] and the music of the six movements of Self-Portraits 1964, Unfinished, are a memoir evoking my youthful state of mind then – rising before dawn, traveling, working, reading, listening, coming home.
The work has a refreshing trajectory; though it begins in a dark place (Herman Melville broods and lays his wisdom writing on us), it gradually moves from dark to light (James Joyce has a dream of young love, and birds remind us of dawning days); there is more life to come, more songs to sing.
We find ourselves grateful for the reminder.
Just living is, in itself, remarkable.
The secret of
Our paternity
Lies in their grave, and
We must there to learn it.
- Melville, Moby Dick
