DSQ at Canterbury

February 2023: the Delta Saxophone Quartet gave Damascene Redux another outing as part of the University of Kent’s lunchtime concert series at Fergusson Hall. This was followed by a workshop with music students.

February 2023: the Delta Saxophone Quartet gave Damascene Redux another outing as part of the University of Kent’s lunchtime concert series at Fergusson Hall, Canterbury. This was followed by a workshop with music students. As I’ve previously noted it is has been some years since DSQ premiered Damascene Redux – a ‘free’ version of Damascene Portrait in which the four parts are reduced to a single line of melodic incipits that the performers freely extend and improvise around – so, avoiding clichés about busses, it’s been great to have two performances so close together (the only problem has been my inability to attend either!). I hope the students enjoyed the workshop – the quartet seem to to have had the measure of this piece ever since the first rehearsal and I’m sure they were able to pass this on to the participants. My hope is that the score is amenable to fairly novice improvisers and experienced ones; the structures it offers can be both a prop and also a challenge to allow the ideas to evolve as they will whilst respecting the composed sequence they follow.

Author: Tom Armstrong

Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Surrey, Guildford UK. Freelance composer.

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