Tiny Machines (2017/2024)
saxophone quartet (s, a, t, b)
1. Cog
2. Gear
3. Bearing
4. Torque
5. Pulley
6. Lever
7. RPM
8. Spindle
9. Belt
10. Turbine
A few years ago I visited the Ford truck assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan to make field recordings of its massive assembly line. I was led by a plant manager on an elevated walkway above the various stations so I could observe and record. Each station along the line had a singular, focused goal, which was realized in about a minute. Station after station, it was a complex web of equipment, robotics and personnel. There was a beautiful rhythm and choreography to it all, with a completed truck coming off the line every 53 seconds. Tiny Machines is my nod to this process. It is a collection of ten miniature musical 'machines.' Through carefully constructed interlocking parts and gestures, each movement is an energy-filled study of musical mechanisms.