The Mechanics
Six from the Shop Floor for Saxophone Quartet
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SKU: PR.114416640
Six from the Shop Floor for Saxophone Quartet. Composed by Carter Pann. Sws text to cover, inserts to themselves. Contemporary. Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. Composed May 30 2013. 28+12+12+12+12 pages. Duration 16 minutes, 30 seconds. Theodore Presser Company #114-41664. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114416640).ISBN 9781598069549. UPC: 680160624218. 9x12 inches.
Carter Pann composed The Mechanics in 2013 at the rustic MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, as a commission for the Capitol Quartet. Pann describes "picturing all four gentlemen of the Capitol Quartet to be dressed as old-time auto mechanics, smudged with grit and grease, performing in the middle of my brother's taxicab stand (which is also a full-service auto shop with two hydraulic lifts).".
THE MECHANICS – Six from the Shop Floor (2013) was commissioned by the Capitol Quartet for their 2013-14 performance season. The work was started and finished in May 2013 at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Every day I set about writing this piece, I pictured all four gentlemen of the Capitol Quartet to be dressed as old-time auto mechanics, smudged with grit and grease, performing in the middle of my brother’s taxicab stand (which is also a full-service auto shop with two hydraulic lifts). THE MECHANICS was released on Blue Griffin Records in January 2015 by the Capitol Quartet.I. Hoist is bold music that lifts itself upward and never falls down. The texture is very thick and replete with churning counterpoint.II. Drive Train is fast music consisting of running eighth notes and quick turnabouts. It is almost always driving forward in a pseudo-Baroque frenzy.III. Belt (to S.R.) is slower music set on a minimalist plane. As the movement matures, the intervals get larger and the volume gets louder until a calm repose near the end.IV. Flywheel is fast and angular jazz-jump music showcasing the baritone saxophone as a soloist accompanied by the other three players. When all four instruments come together in several places throughout the movement they play music that rolls forward on wheeling rhythms.V. Balance is a slow, lyrical song. Every player takes the lead somewhere in this movement, singing beautifully over the texture. There are halted moments in this music that require the utmost balance in volume among all four saxophones together.VI. Trash is straight-up turbo blues music. The theme upfront resembles that of a certain TV show from the 70’s about a father/son garbagemen duo. The music in the middle is more subdued call-and-response ragtime with a cheeky feel – all of it hanging on a texture of counterpoint about to boil over.— Carter Pann.