WNMD 2025 · CONCERT NO. 13 · Henrique Portovedo - sax — Miso Music Portugal
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WNMD 2025 · CONCERT NO. 13 · Henrique Portovedo - sax

  • CENTRO CULTURAL DE BELÉM - SALA LUÍS DE FREITAS BRANCO Portugal (map)

WNMD 2025 · CONCERT NO. 13
03-06-2025 · 18h00
Centro Cultural de Belém – Sala Luís de Freitas Branco
BILHETEIRA CCB

Henrique Portovedo – saxophone

CHRISTOPHER BOCHMANN (UK, 1950)
Capriccio (2007), 6'

DÁNIEL PÉTER BIRÓ (Hungary, 1969)
Kilkul (Breakdown) (2024), 10'
Individual submission

DIOGO ALVIM (Portugal, 1979)
Music for Sax and Boxes (2012), 10', WP (new version)

JONATHAN NANGLE (Ireland, 1981)
Artificial Blissful State (2016), 6'
ISCM Irish section submission

PAULO FERREIRA-LOPES (Portugal, 1964)
Three Short Pieces from The Darkness Book (2007), 8'

TILEN LEBAR (Slovenia, 1993) YCA
Hassan (2022), 11'
ISCM Slovenian section submission

YCA · Young Composers Award candidate
WP · world premiere

PROGRAMME NOTES

DÁNIEL PÉTER BIRÓ (Hungay, 1969)
Kilkul (Breakdown) (2024), for alto saxophone in E-flat
Individual submission

The Hebrew word Kilkul, meaning Breakdown, can also refer to spiritual problems disorder. In the beginning, motivic elements “break down”, as their harmonic spectra and microtonal basis come to the aspects of perceptual foreground. In this process, the listener perceives the path of a person who slowly “recovers” from an initial state of panic to discover again, via a series of multiphonic harmonies, the basic source of sound production – the breath of life.

JONATHAN NANGLE (Ireland, 1981)
Artificial Blissful State (2016), for baritone saxophone and electronics
ISCM Irish section submission

Artificial Blissful State is a commentary on the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) within our daily lives, from voice-activated personal assistants on our mobile devices to home assistants, self-driving vehicles to online stores tracking our browsing history in an effort to “suggest” things that might be of interest to us based on search terms and past transactions.

Here, an aggressive electronic track drives forward, unrelenting, unflinching, a steady pulse against which the saxophone plays their role, sometimes irregular and jarring, pushing against the tide of ‘progress’, sometimes slotting into place with ease, but never stemming the technological flow.

Addendum 2024: In the eight years since I wrote this piece, AI has become a hot topic with the rise of numerous platforms, such as Chat GPT and Stable Diffusion, and more recent applications, such as Sora, becoming mainstream and more widely available to the public. The speed at which these platforms have developed and evolved is mindblowing, and the applications are simultaneously exciting and deeply troubling. With the rise of the machines (forgive the analogy), the commentary embedded within my piece is even more prescient today than in 2016, when I was inspired to write this piece.

Artificial Blissful State was commissioned by Gavin Brennan with funds generously provided by the Arts Council of Ireland.

TILEN LEBAR (Slovenia, 1993) YCA
Hassan (2022), for saxophone and tape
ISCM Slovenian section submission

Hassan is a composition that is more related to prose than poetry. The narrative way of developing musical material appears in the places where we expect it to be. For example, the “whistle tone” technique appears at first in the tape and later reveals itself in an acoustic form. Moreover, the prepared saxophone enables a quiet “unusual” expansion on natural spectral multiphonics, extremely introverted dynamics and a timbre that rarely appears within the contemporary repertoire for alto saxophone. The presence of the name Hassan itself constructs my social environment, as I live in a particular part of The Hague that is predominantly associated with the Moroccan community. This makes a connection that leads me to explore their cultural heritage and relationship within the community. The piece is dedicated to my long-time mentor and friend Matjaž Drevenšek.