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Dimwit’s Delight (2005) for saxophone quartet, 7' |
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Dimwit’s
Delight is an impish piece of the sort of dopey humor one associates with
dimwits, dunderpates, and dingbats alike. In its use of typical saxophone
“extended techniques” and stereotypical frenetic gestures, it is
extravagantly clich_d. Each change of character displays another side of the
dear dimwit’s nature. Even he has his witty moments, as well as his grooving,
sneaky, ugly, and brazen ones. Formally,
the piece is in three main sections. In the first, a stuttering set of
rhythms gradually gives way to a driving groove, supported by a structure of
isolated interval groupings. Throughout the section, more and more textural,
rhythmic, and harmonic gestures accumulate, creating two successive
climaxes—one little and one big. The second section displays a deliberate
ugliness, an inharmonicity achieved through growls, glissandi, altissimo
pitches, and quarter tone tunings. After this section sputters out, the third
rebuilds a structure reminiscent of that of the opening, piling on new sets
of interval groupings and new rhythmic and textural gestures until the piece
collapses under its own weight.
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