Commissioner
Khroma Quartet | Anne Kunkle: Soprano Saxophone, Sarah Hetrick: Alto Saxophone, Wilson Poffenberger: Tenor Saxophone, Michael Chapa: Baritone Saxophone
Program Notes
The inspiration of Hide and Seek sprung out of my childhood memories playing this popular children’s game with my friends while growing up in my home country of Cyprus. The concept underlying Hide and Seek is based on my lifelong fascination for hidden mysteries that beg to unveil their secrets.
Hide and Seek is structured as one continuous movement marked by four distinct sections that flow into each other organically. To capture the idea of elusion, the piece begins with fleeting melodic fragments scattered across the ensemble. The melodic ideas bounce off of each other creating a web of intriguing path ways. The contrapuntal character and interplay between the ensemble voices is also apparent in the second and third sections. A closer look at these passages’ intervallic nature will reveal formal structures and organizational schemes that are not immediately apparent. Τhe final section of the piece quotes and manipulates the melody of the famous traditional Cypriot song titled Τηλλυρκώτισσα (Tillirkotissa). The lyrics of this particular song are constructed using a made-up language, otherwise known as κορακίστικα (korakistika). Korakistika is a form of wordplay used to disguise sentences and obscure meaning, similar to pig Latin or Gibberish, often by inserting nonsense syllables between each syllable of words.