Aeolian Voices
for saxophone quartet
for saxophone quartet
Written in 1990 (a year marked in France by wind storms), “Aeolian Voices” was commissioned by the Versailles saxophone quartet, to whom it is dedicated. The piece is short, with a frequently agitated tempo (in fact, a sort of scherzo). The title refers to Aeolus, god controller of the winds in Greco-Latin mythology; but instead of seeking to illustrate a famous scene in the “Odysseus”, where Ulysses’ companions let the winds out of Aeolus’ goatskin flask only to trigger a storm, the listener might as well let himself drift on the imaginary winds conveyed by the reverberations of the quartet, from the most violent gust of wind to the more subtle tremors of the central lull.
Vincent Paulet
composed in : 1990
commissioned and premiered in : 1990, by Quatuor de saxophones de Versailles
duration : 4’30
publisher : Billaudot
discography : le Quatuor de saxophones de Versailles, 1991 (THÉSIS, « Quatuor de saxophones de Versailles – Pourquoi pas ? » THC 82052)
also in the repertoire of quatuor Diastema and quatuor Jean-Yves Fourmeau
Quatuor de saxophones de Versailles (Claude Keloglanian, Xavier Rosselle, Michel Oberli and Dany Aubert)
THÉSIS THC 82052, 1991