so many warnings of an eternal future 

for saxophone quartet and fixed media (2024)

 

Duration: 6' 

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Program Notes: 

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The title refers to an excerpt from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's memoir Eighty Years and More, in which she laments the presence of ever-tolling church bells disrupting her everyday life. Stanton writes, "those clanging bells filled me with the utmost dread; they seemed like so many warnings of an eternal future". This piece draws parallels between the sonic interruptions noted in Stanton's memoir and the relentless auditory distractions of our time- the phone notifications, texts, calls, emails, and calendar reminders that fragment our attention each hour.

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To download the fixed media files and MAX/MSP performance patch, please contact the composer at tosarahparker@gmail.com.

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so many warnings of an eternal future was premiered on November 6th, 2024 at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, performed by the Bleu Quartet; Amy Xue  (soprano saxophone), Junze Aheng (alto saxophone), Baily Liu (tenor saxophone), and John Gleed (baritone saxophone) , with fixed media controlled by the composer.