Prague 1588
Year: 2019 op.24a
Duration: 4 minutes
Publisher:
AMEL•MUSIC
Instrumentation
Alto saxophone
Program Note
In 2008, my friend, the sculptor Alexander Polzin, invited me to compose a new work for the unveiling of his sculpture of Giordano Bruno in Berlin. In preparing for the piece, I immersed myself in Bruno's writings and life, searching for a personal connection.
Bruno greatly admired the Maharal of Prague and longed to meet him. Though no historical record confirms such an encounter, both men were in Prague in 1588, making it possible. John Crowley's novel Endless Things imagines this very meeting. My own family tree added a surprising dimension: I discovered that I am a direct descendant of the Maharal, whose lineage in my family reaches back to 1392.
The composition is inspired by that imagined — or perhaps real — meeting between Bruno and the Maharal.
This version for solo alto saxophone (2019) is my own transcription of the original, written for solo clarinet in 2008. The saxophone's wider dynamic palette and reedier voice give the meditation a different weight: where the clarinet leans toward inwardness, the alto pulls the music outward, lending Bruno's restless, heretical energy a sharper edge. The piece remains a single, unbroken arc of about four minutes.
