This paper explores how the concept of proximity informs various stages of the compositional process in my work Ebb and Flow (2024), written for saxophone quartet in collaboration with the Quasar Saxophone Quartet of Montreal. By framing the compositional process through the lens of proximity, I connect three key aspects of the piece: the creation of its sonic repertoire, the structured organization of simultaneous sonorities, and the sequencing and concatenation of sounds into larger formal segments. The paper addresses the use of computational timbre analysis using FLUCOMA as a computer assisted composition tool and elaborates on the implications of its use in the compositional process.

My Five Miniatures for saxophone quartet are based on two main musical ideas that share loose connections with æsthetic principles found in the practice of the grands rhétoriqueurs—a group of poets from the late Middle Ages, primarily active around the court of Burgundy, known for their formal virtuosity. The first musical idea I employ is the decentralization of rhythmic structures, a technique I have developed which echoes prolation canons. The second idea involves using a limited number of sound objects or motives, which are combined in various ways to create perceptual analogies between complex timbral figures. Multiphonic sounds play a significant role among these sound objects. Rhythmic decentralization and complex timbral figures serve as the foundational axes for my five miniatures, which each explore a unique balance between these two concepts.

This research-creation project, organized by the ACTOR Project, focuses on writing a 10-minute composition for the Quatuor Quasar (a saxophone quartet based in Montréal), using one soprano saxophone, one alto saxophone, one tenor saxophone and one baritone saxophone. The composition should focus on using and blending saxophone multiphonics together. All composers were asked to take notes during the composition process. A total of three workshops were organized in the Montréal studios of the Quatuor Quasar from September 2023 to March 2024, to explore preliminary sketches and ideas from each composer involved in the project.

Amortisseur Harmonique (2024) is an eleven-minute work for saxophone quartet in which I explore the possibility of developing a cohesive compositional language from the qualities that make multiphonics unique—both sonically and structurally—in order to construct a multiphonic “story.” As composers working within a  post-tonal system, it is our unique privilege–and thus responsibility–to define our own musical “home” and “away” so that the audience can appreciate the musical narrative. To define the compositional language of a piece means to articulate to the audience what the musical characters are and what their motivation is, so that when they are woven, interpolated, granted or denied closure, or manipulated in any way, the audience can feel the impact of that development.

Beneath the Old Power Plant is a work for the Quasar Saxophone Quartet that explores new and interesting ways to use multiphonics, as part of a larger multi-composer research creation project led by Robert Hasegawa and supported by the ACTOR Project. Multiphonics on a wind instrument happen when the air column inside the instrument begins to vibrate at multiple (not purely harmonic) frequencies at once, producing at least two audibly distinct pitches, usually from an altered or non-standard fingering.