ROVA Piece:

section 1 baritone sax is harmonizer source, transposition all upwards creating close-voiced chords that interplay with choir formed by alto, soprano & sopranino - it starts with approaches to the tuning of seven voice chords, i.e. voices move towards chords determined by bari & the harmonizer. Unpulsed intro scores sliding tones, in and out, of the chord. Baritone sax measures breaths against long pulsed on and off chords from the sequencer - seeks to establish a tempo from the sequencer, then enters playing rhythmic motives, which the chord will then enter to correct. Sax choir moves from more independence in the intro towards rhythmic unison with each other - it becomes a three part texture; baritone, harmony, choir. Harmonies move from unison with choir, to surrounding it and interlacing itself with choir notes. Then towards a clustered chord (major & minor seconds) that bari keeps moving into higher range by overblowing. Choir joins the cluster trying to follow it, leading to a duet improvisation between the middle voices, when bari drops out

Section 2 sopranino sax is harmonizer source, transposition downwards starting with an effect where the harmonizer is normally creating a triadic chord below melody note in the copranino, but it rhythmically opens out, puncturating with at two octave full chord - baritone "snags" notes off the bottom, then alot snags one, then soprano snags one, until full open chord texture develops, and the punctuation off the melody line becomes more repetitive - play with choir alternating attacks with harmony, then break back into separate attacks and lines - eight line texture - sopranino get quieter but mixes in more harmonizer, trying to disappear behind the sound, the higher voices gradually trickle away leaving only the bari, who does an acoustic solo trying to "cover" the exit of the sopranino, then fragments, leaving more and more space....

Section 3

soprano sax is harmonizer source, playing melody lines, and fading in counterpoint under foot control - counterpoint line will center around sop sax range, occasionally above, but more often below - sopranino switches to tenor - alto and tenor eventually enter in imitation - attempt to keep two duets separate, tailing each other, alto imitates sopranino (improvised), and tenor imitates harmonizer - all voices in polyharmonic relationship to each other, criss-crossing lines, contrary motion - 2nd voice in harmonizer enters in extremely high range, plays ostinato rhythmic patterns, baritone joins in lowest register with hockets - the other four voices gradually move towards rhythmic convergence with the last two to enter. Then the final two harmony voices enter, playing on a different rhythmic strata, but also repetitive and persistent. The section then plays with changes in texture, trying out duets between all 8 present members, leading to terraced feeling as abrupt changes of partners take place, rhythmic pull goes to wards the slower strata. On one of the breaks in texture, sopranino gives up harmonizer

Section 4 alto is harmonizer source, playing in midrange with two voices of harmonizer above and two below. The idea in this section is to explore full 8 voice harmony. From the choppy polyrhythmic, polytonal feel of section three, the motion is towards a more unified chorale texture, phrased/lead by the alto. Values are gradually extended, leading to chords that are held for quite a long time. Changes in harmony become less frequent, until just three chords are alternated. The "real voices" begin to fade in and out on their long tones, swapping registers (i.e. alto->soprano) to subtly change voicing on each new chord. Find alto alternative fingering trills to fade out final chord on.