"Murder for a Jar of Red Rum" Premieres at Sansusi festival 2024.

This work was composed at the request of saxophone virtuoso Arvydas Kazlauskas and Quadra Piano Quartet consisting of violinist Arvīds Zvagulis, violist Pēteris Trasuns, cellist Kārlis Klotiņš, and pianist Rihards Plešanovs. Thank you for the excellent performance and sounding result! Also thank you to the organisers of Sansusi festival, it was wonderful to experience!

Audio and video recordings of the piece will be added here when ready.

Abstract:

“Murder for a jar of red rum” is a known palindrome - it can be spelled backwards and reads the same. This puzzle is explored throughout this peice on several structural, rhythmic and melodic levels, in 5 short movements. Longer pauses are allowed between movements if desired or necessary, but it would be ideal to play through all movements in written time.

This piece was written for saxophone and piano quartet at the request of my dear friend Arvydas Kazlauskas, who was looking for new music for this combination, thus it aims to highlight some of his particular abilities.

I wanted to create a palindrome concept piece, and had chosen the palindrome “murder for a jar of red rum” as a title. I felt it should sound enigmatic, playful, minimal, yet also bleak. Like chess pieces moving into place, time ticking, a vault springing open and a stagecoach hurtling through the night. This particular instrumentation afforded some rich timbral and dynamic advantages for bringing these thematic intentions to life.

Performance notes:

The music is meant to be played with high dynamics. The articulation of all instruments should have a strong, precise, forceful attack especially where indicated by accents. Staccato articulation marks should be tightly and individually bowed in slow passages, but in fast passages, strings may employ the jeté technique to maintain articulation at speed. Staccatissimo articulation on the saxophone indicates a forceful pop on the attack. Tenutos are to be regarded moderately forceful, always with a change of bow direction or a clearly articulated attack.

The music is written in a double harmonic major scale on D, thus the D major key signature is used, but there are two permanent accidentals- a flat 2nd (E flat) and 6th (B flat). This is more commonly known as a Byzantine scale, and has perfectly symmetrical intervals ascending or descending from the tonal centre, which makes it especially suitable for a palindrome inspired piece. It closely shares nuances of the Phrygian Dominant sound, but also shares Arabic, Gypsy and other associations. By these means the music aims to draw the listener into a mysterious, eastern setting with an uplifting yet ominous sonority.