Catalog of Multiphonics

(2021–) for fixed media

Inspired by the completism of Tom Johnston and the poetic experimentations of Kenneth Goldsmith, this piece steps through a comprehensive compendium of saxophone multiphonics (The Techniques of Saxophone Playing by Marcus Weiss and Giorgio Netti). Each multiphonic is arranged sequentially by sonic type and catalog order, from lowest to highest, for a quartet of four saxophones.

This is a work in progress. This is only one of the nine catagories of multiphonics listed in the text. All four sections here are type “E” which consists of microtonal thirds at a quiet dynamic level. In it’s current form, this music is an odd sort of musique concrète. A human-performed version, while demanding, is possible.

As research, this presents an number of interesting musical possibilities. These materials could be arranged by pitch content, dynamics, difficulty, common tones, or other criteria. As is, it is an essay in pure instrumentality, as the form is entirely determined by the acoustic properties of the instruments.