Saxophone quartet: soprano, alto, tenor, baritone
Duration: 09:00
Based on the Holy Week Responsory by Tomás Luis de Victoria Tenebrae factae sunt
World Premiere: 12 July 2012. 16th World Saxophone Congress. University of St Andrews, Scotland. Performers: Sigma Project.
Commissioned by: Sigma Project/INAEM
Dedicated: a Sigma Project
Torres Composer YouTube Channel
Piece for four saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone), commissioned by the Sigma Project ensemble in 2012, with a duration of 10 minutes. The starting material is the Responsory from the Holy Week Office by Tomás Luis de Victoria. Tenebrae factae sunt. The text refers to the final moments of Jesus Christ on the cross, with his intense final words:
Tenebrae factae sunt
Tenebrae factae sunt,
dum crucifixissent lesum Iudaei:
et circa horam nonam exclamavit Iesus voce magna:
Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?
Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum.
Exclamans Iesus voce magna ait:
Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.
Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum.
(Matth. 27, 45-46; Lc. 23, 46)
Expressed by Victoria through extremely spiritual and mystical music, in an austere discourse—only apparently so—for four voices.
My work is structured in eight sections, from which each of the verses of the responsory emerges, and develops multiple reworkings of the polyphonic material, making use of the numerous resources of the saxophone quartet, and particularly the rich array of multiphonics found in pianissimo which envelops the outer sections of the piece.
J. T.