Drift

“On a sheerly musical level, Drift, for saxophone quartet, is the most successful piece, creating imaginative, rhythmically intriguing textures throughout. The work maintains compelling shifts of pulsing patterns as energy is spread evenly across the quartet. Melodic and rhythmic gestures, often beginning as solo statements, result in rich, undulating polyphonies as the instruments ride in and out of various whole tone and free tonalities. Usually the saxophones have independent melodic and rhythmic patterns, but occasionally they come together in homophonic moments. Drift ends with a brief glimpse into a magical fairyland.”

~Carol Ann Weaver, “Compact Disc Reviews: Tapping the Furnace: Music by Dorothy Hindman, lnnova848(2013),” IAWM Journal Volume 21, No. 1 2015, 44-45

“Drift was similar in texture to the faster movements of Eric Moe’s Market Forces – heavy bari sax staccatos with the other instruments layering over the top. This palette was contrasted with a wavelike tradeoff occurring toward the end of the piece, and the abrupt ending in harmonic ascension, though expected, was very pleasing. This was the most poetic of the pieces.”

~Ian O’Beirne. “Concert done on 6/26/05 by New York Saxophone Quartet,”Saxontheweb.net., June 26, 2005

“Dorothy Hindman’s clever, smile-inducing Drift is a rhythmic minefield that explores various harmonies in quick succession.”

~Michael Huebner, “ARA Excels at BSC,” The Birmingham News, Sunday, April 17, 2005

Program Notes:
Drift is concerned with the perceptual dilemma that no matter how hard one tries, it is not possible to fully focus on a piece of music from beginning to end without having other thoughts or ideas drift in, or rather, it is not possible not to drift in thought while listening to a piece.  There are a number of devices in Drift that attempt to force the listener to constantly return their attention to the piece, including hooks, repetition, and timbral effects.  There are also internal relationships between instruments and between formal sections that play off the idea of drift, such as one instrument going off on a different tangent than the others in the quartet, or imitative ideas where one instrument follows another canonically, or formal variations that continuously develop an idea.  Drift was written for the Lithium Saxophone Quartet in 2002 at their request.

Premiere:
February 21, 2003
Lithium Saxophone Quartet
University of Missouri-Columbia
Commissioner: Lithium Saxophone Quartet

Published by: dorn/Needham, also available on Amazon

Recordings: Tapping the Furnace, innova 848