Prague 1588
Year: 2019 op.24b
Duration: 4 minutes
Publisher:
AMEL•MUSIC
Instrumentation
Tenor saxophone and Soprano 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 tenor and soprano saxophones (2019) is my own transcription of the original solo clarinet work from 2008, scored for a single player switching between the two instruments mid-piece. The instrument change becomes part of the dramaturgy: the tenor's grounded weight and the soprano's high, searching voice stand in for the two figures of the title — Bruno and the Maharal — speaking past, through, and finally to each other across an imagined room.
