Phragmites in the Storm

Ben MORRIS

Phragmites in the Storm

for Saxophone Quartet

Instrumentation:

Soprano Saxophone

Alto Saxophone

Tenor Saxophone

Baritone Saxophone

Duration: ca. 5’20”

Looking out the train window every day on the commute from New Jersey to my New York City internship, I encountered a strange landscape called the Meadowlands. This area consists primarily of marsh land in an urban surrounding, a colorful potpourri of nature and industry. Out the window there were lush beds of Phragmites grass, an invasive species of tall plant, surrounding the tracks. I was taken by the insistent flowing quality of the grass in inclement weather; when a storm raged they were like a chorus of reeds undulating in the wind with a background of thunder and skyscrapers.

The instrumentation of the sax quartet popped in my mind, not only because they are a group of reed instruments, but also because they are capable of simultaneously evoking urban and pastoral imagery. For the piece, I needed a vibrant and versatile ensemble with a uniformity of family to reflect the bed of invasive grass reeds. This piece aims to convey their rapid, synchronized motion in the storm, as well as the polluted urban landscape providing the backdrop.