Ben Morris
Commissioned by David Bernot
Convergent Evolution
Convergent Evolution for tenor saxophone and fixed media
Duration: ca. 7’00”
Program Note:
Convergent evolution is when organisms evolve similar traits independently from each other. Think of how a bat and a hawk evolved to fly, yet they are only distantly related (a bat is a mammal and a hawk is a bird). Similarly, a dolphin, whale, or a shark evolved to swim across different eons of time and space.
Convergent Evolution explores this idea with groove, and the rhythmic relationship between groupings of 2, 3, and 4. Several grooves evolve naturally over the course of the piece, flowing forward and changing their tempo and feel through polyrhythm, layering, and metric modulation. In the piece, new grooves evolve that feel similar to previous grooves in the piece an outgrowth of the organic evolution of rhythm into familiar groupings and the convolution of different groupings into each other.
Estatic e=ca.180
improvisewithfragmentsofpreviousmelody,losingsenseoftime,building