Skylighght: Form and methodology for an encounter between the voice and saxophone

Abstract

Skylighght is a piece for voice and tenor saxophone created by Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers, of thingNY. The half-hour piece explores the duet structure in a number of different configurations, offering an intimate and vulnerable practice for finding the meeting ground of the voice and the saxophone, both sonically and physically. This Voicing contains the prose score for the piece with extensive description and methodologies for how to perform the piece. Some sections of the work respond to architectural space, while others use the unique pairing of a vocalist singing into the bell of the saxophone to make novel sounds. The final movement, ‘Building Canyons’, is designed for spotlighting the extraordinary multiphonics and harmonic partials that can be created when a vocalist sings into the instrument while the saxophonist is playing from the other end.