I enjoy playing abstract strategy games but I’m not very good at them. One game that I would really like to play more and get better at is Go. Where the game of chess has opening moves and gambits and whatnots, in Go there is the concept of “joseki” or what kinds of stone placements are expected given how your opponent plays. For this composition, I took the shapes of common joseki patterns and converted them into pitches. To mimic the multiple options of stone placements, a delay line refracts these positions and shows how past choices impact current situations. It was a great honor to compose this piece for Andrew Allen to premiere at the World Saxophone Congress!
Download the score: Joseki