TRACKS
1.-4. Fred Stride – Metamorphosis
I. Side by Side
II. Tango del Currie 
III. Mystics
IV. Down in the Basement

5.-7. Violet Archer – Divertimento
I. Preludio 
II. Meditation 
III. Festive

8.-12. Beatrice Ferreira – Nightmare Fragments for Saxophone Quartet
I. three Witches on my bedsheets 
XI. I lay one million purple Eggs 
VIII. on the pier: split Rosehip/Cyst 
V. the Taxidermist’s hallway 
XII. Red Oak Sap; her Invocation 

13. Rodney Sharman – Homage to Robert Schumann 

14. David Branter – Four Stories 

CREDITS
Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet
Julia Nolan – soprano saxophone
Kris Covlin – alto saxophone
David Branter – tenor saxophone
Colin MacDonald – baritone saxophone

Recorded June 21 & 22, 2022; April 26, 2023 at Monarch Studios, Vancouver, BC
Producer, editing – Giorgio Magnanensi
Recording engineer, mastering – Don Harder
Photography and design – Mark Mushet

Program notes available at www.saxophilia.com

Metamorphosis is a natural phenomenon when speaking of musicians and their music. Melodies and harmonies are transformed through traditional narrative structures, restless and surreal exploration, or following threads of simple curiosity as compositions shift and re-structure themselves before our very ears. Musicians walk on stage or into a recording studio to shed their cocoons and spread their wings on gusts of sound and vibration, entering the ephemeral flow-space that is performance. We experience the world as endless change, and what better way to hold the awareness of that change than through the medium of music, the artform most closely associated with the passage of time.

This collection of original saxophone quartet works by Canadian composers highlights the fluid creativity of our friends and colleagues. The five pieces on this album are characterized by dense counterpoint, rich harmonies, kaleidoscopic rhythms, delicate timbres, and soul-stirring melodies. There is a rich variety of styles and techniques from the different composers, but the unifying element in all the pieces is a striving after the possibilities of expression from the saxophone quartet. 

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Commissioning funds for Rodney Sharman generously provided by the BC Arts Council and SOCAN Foundation.

Metamorphosis is available from:

TK536 © 2023 Saxophila

---

Saxophilia

Formed in 1996, the Vancouver-based saxophone quartet Saxophilia has been committed to giving the highest quality performances of classical saxophone repertoire.  Its members include Julia Nolan on soprano saxophone, Kris Covlin on alto saxophone, David Branter on tenor saxophone, and Colin MacDonald on baritone saxophone.  All of the quartet members are active performers in Vancouver’s music community, as soloists and as band members in a wide variety of styles from classical to jazz to popular music.  This appreciation of a diversity of music informs the group’s choice of repertoire, which ranges from the standard repertoire of classical saxophone quartet, to contemporary music, to jazz arrangements and lighter fare. 

The quartet has been active in the new music community, appearing in the Vancouver New Music Festival 2004 and the Sonic Boom Festivals of 1999, 2000, and 2006.  Outside of Vancouver, the group has presented programs at regional conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance held in Victoria and Saskatoon, and has performed at the 12^th World Saxophone Congress in Montreal.

Saxophilia successfully commissioned John Burke in 2004 for his piece Gyaling, assisted in the creation of Last Call by Derek Charke, and gave the Western Canada premiere of Peter Hannan’s Fast Truck Bop.  The group has also given the Canadian premiere of works by international composers such as Graham Fitkin, Erki-Sven Tüür, Helena Tulva, David Kechley, and Michael Torke.