Mrs. Holberton

Description

Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone — Mrs. Holberton took life after a friend of mine showed me a YouTube compilation of sorting algorithms. Whoever put that video together made the inspired—or cursed—decision to sort pitches (low to high). At that same moment in time, I was in the middle of my very serious music education, where I was desperate to make works that were deeply intellectual and very serious. But music school didn’t begin that way for me. Mere months into the start of my very serious music education I wrote Salty Spittoon, which takes its named from SpongeBob SquarePants. In rare moments throughout these years I’d come up with something that, for whatever reason, would go on to survive in my mind. Holberton was one such piece. She was first started—and completed—in the fall of 2017 and, for whatever reason, she’d later be revisited in the spring of 2019 and the summer of 2025. Looking back on it now (I write to you from the end of September 2025) I think there’s something about its total ob-noxiousness that stands out. This obnoxiousness comes from, I think, the fact that this piece is taken totally seriously. The comically obsessive soundworld attracted itself to me, for whatever reason, but at that time I was very serious. If I personify Holberton in my mind, I picture the most annoying science teacher you’ve ever had, and yet you just can’t look away from the show they put on for you every single day. It’s one of the cringiest things you’ve ever seen and yet there’s something brutally memorable to it, and you somehow leave class having learned at least a little something. A "knuckle-buster" for an adventurous saxophone quartet, this piece brings vibrant life to a variety of data-sorting techniques pioneered by the pioneering American computer scientist, Betty Holberton.  A challenging piece that yields great rewards.

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