Alexander Bridger

This past Thursday, I had the honour of watching Steve Cowan, one of Canada’s best classical guitarists, interpret my new piece, Man Baby Motel, as part of a concert hosted by local Montreal flute consort, Autour de La Flute. Steve has been one of my most loyal and enduring friends for 20 years, so I have seen him perform countless times in both concert and private contexts. In Man Baby Motel, I tried to draw on this close familiarity I have with his playing; it is not everyday that you have the foremost instrumental specialist at your disposal, so I wanted to seize that unique chance to write “for him” to the best of my ability. More specifically, I have always admired Steve’s renderings of Erik Satie piano music, and the warped, quirky atmosphere of Satie definitely leaked into the harmony and character of the piece. I can’t wait to get some audio to listen back and share it with the public!

Today, I am getting settled in for what will surely be an exciting week of rehearsals and workshops linked to my participation in Soundstreams’ Bridges program. I will get the chance to receive mentorship from composers Zosha di Castri and Cassandra Miller, and our work will culminate in the performance of my first ever string quartet. Amazingly, this first quartet, entitled Frottages, will be played by one of the best quartets in Canada, Quatuor Bozzini. I am so lucky!! I will post a more detailed description of some of the compositional techniques used in Frottages later on, because there is some funny business at play in this one.  For now, check out a cool looking hand-written page from my sketches for the piece (below).

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to seeing you soon! Drop me a message if you’d like to talk music.