Antanaklasi

(
2011
)
Composer: Wolf Edwards
for eight saxophones

Antanaklasi (reflection) is a self-critical retrospective of my musical language. In the piece, I examine the musical elements of my past in order to move forward; for if a composer settles, they will be stunted; their work becoming a type of fossil rather than a living entity.

The music is mediated through my practice as an anarchist. I work with ideas, and forms, relevant to the immediate present, rather than pre-conceived architectures. Therefore another “reflection” is in motion, but one that reflects on the actions of life as I experience it.

Metaphorically speaking, current political, and social, convention serves specific agendas that do not support life. This composition opposes these structures, preferring to develop within its own world a type of free expression. A world that can survive, and flourish, without law and/or the large scale state.

The piece was written as two saxophone quartets, which may be performed together, or separate.

Antanaklasi is dedicated to the Quasar, the Arte, and composers Mark Molnar, and Charles-Antoine Fréchette.

This work was commissioned by the Quasar Saxophone Quartet with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. It was premiered on March 5 2011, by Arte and Quasar at the Theater Rigiblick in Zürich.