Blossoming

Program Notes

Blossoming (2012) is a short work written for PRISM saxophone quartet, which seeks to explore the saxophone's softer side. At the outset of my composing, I imagined a piece that would start from pure sounds of blowing air, and then gradually add pitch and rhythm, as if in a journey from something amorphous towards something concrete and defined. As the piece developed, the title 'Blossoming' seemed to reflect the swells of sounds and colors coming to life in the piece, as well as the larger musical form – an evolution of connected ideas, moving from soft, to loud, back to soft.

— Daniel Temkin