ACTOR Quasar Project
Composing with Multiphonics
A Research-Creation Project by the ACTOR Project and Quasar Saxophone Quartet
Participants
Composers: Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, Chelsea Komschlies, Anita Pari, Lila Quillin, Jonas Regnier, Louis-Michel Tougas,
Faculty mentors: Robert Hasegawa
Performers: Quasar Saxophone Quartet: Marie-Chantal Leclair, Soprano Saxophone; Mathieu Leclair, Alto Saxophone; André Leroux, Tenor Saxophone; Jean-Marc Bouchard, Baritone Saxophone.
Summary
This module documents an ACTOR research-creation project bringing together six composers with the musicians of the Quasar Saxophone Quartet for a yearlong series of meetings and workshops culminating in a concert on May 9, 2024, “Vacillations harmoniques en six tableaux / Harmonic vacillations in six pictures.” The project, organized by ACTOR members Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez and Robert Hasegawa, featured six McGill-affiliated composers (Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, Chelsea Komschlies, Anita Pari, Lila Quillin, Jonas Regnier, Louis-Michel Tougas) with research assistance from saxophonists Tommy Davis and Kirby Leitz and the inexhaustible dedication and generosity of the members of the Quasar Saxophone Quartet.
The research-creation project focused on saxophone multiphonics, a large family of “multiple sounds” that have enormous and still largely untapped musical potential. By allowing air columns of different length to vibrate together, multiphonics create complex sounds, sometimes consisting of dozens of different frequencies. Part timbre, part chord, multiphonics range from soft and delicate to overpoweringly loud and intense. The musicians of Quasar are experts in this field, having developed an online catalogue—Q-Phonics—of almost 200 multiphonics for the four types of saxophones of the quartet. Over the course of the project, we analyzed the acoustics of these sounds in great detail, and most importantly, explored strategies for deploying and combining these complex sounds in a musical context.
Composers and performers worked together for a full year, starting in May 2023 with initial discussions and continuing through three multi-day sessions at Quasar’s rehearsal studio. The extended timeframe of the collaboration allowed multiple occasions to test and develop musical ideas and receive feedback from the quartet.
Six striking and very different pieces have emerged from this collaboration. In this module, we have archived scores from the project as well as recordings from the May 9 concert. Each composer has also contributed a web essay describing their approach to incorporating multiphonics within their piece.
Compositions and Essays
Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, Ebb and Flow
Chelsea Komschlies, Beneath the Old Power Plant
Lila Quillin, Amortisseur Harmonique
Louis-Michel Tougas, Cinq miniatures
This project wouldn’t be possible without our ACTOR funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec, and generous support from CIRMMT and the Schulich School of Music. We are very grateful to our funders and to the openness and generosity of the musicians of Quasar.
Bonne écoute!