Amy Quartet (1992)
Approximate Duration: 8:30
This piece was written for 4 musicians named Amy. The original performance was meant to have viola instead of saxophone, but Amy Viola had to cancel.
PDF Score (Original hand-written score)
Live Performance:
Amy Pickering, alto
Amy Rambo, saxophone
Amy Barwan, oboe
Amy Briggs, piano
PROGRAM NOTES:
Amy Quartet is absurd on quite a few levels. The main absurdity is the idea that this piece can’t be performed if there aren’t enough Amy’s to perform it. In order for it to be performed, there needs to be a vocalist and keyboardist, although a marimba or other keyed percussion instrument would work. The other instruments can be substituted. In the 70’s there was a kids show on PBS called “The Electric Company”, starring a young Morgan Freeman. There was a recurring skit where two silhouettes, one male (Morgan Freeman) and one female, each said the syllable of a word, then pronounced the entire word together in unison. Each movement of the Amy Quartet explores the three sounds of the letters (at least the sounds they make in American English), and the unison pronunciation of the word at the end is an homage to the Electric Company skit.