William Susman
Duo Montuño
Duration: 7'
Instrumentation details:
alto saxophone in Eb
piano
Duo Montuño
Translation, reprints and more
William Susman
Duo Montuño
Available digitally
Orchestration: for Alto Saxophone and Piano
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Work introduction
Much of my music of the 90s and beyond explores the repetitive rhythms heard in Afro-Cuban music. One such gesture is the montuño, a repeated syncopated line or ostinato, often assigned to the piano, which outlines the harmony of a passage. In my music, any instrument can play a montuño. I also use medieval rhythmic and contrapuntal devices called hocket and isorhythm. What results is an episodic conversation between the alto sax and piano.
The first performance of Duo Montuño was in its original form for clarinet and piano in June of 2007 at the Knitting Factory in NYC.