Killing Time (1980)

Amplified Alto Saxophone, Amplified Piano, and Tape – 12 mins. Order from Freundworks

Video

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Killing Time was composed in 1980 for amplified alto saxophone, amplified piano and a stereo tape which is decidedly pre-digital. Listeners who didn’t live through the ‘60’s and ‘70’s may not recognize Charles Manson’s favorite Beatle tune or know that a certain symphonic composer was a turn-on for the “ultra-violent” protagonist of A Clockwork Orange.

The unexpurgated program notes read: “Killing Time celebrates the power and joy of ugliness, violence, and wanton destruction. It was inspired by a newspaper article about a Punk Rock concert which incited listeners to acts of brutality and self-mutilation.” The performance instructions suggest that “playback and amplification levels should be very loud, though not painfully so. The pain is inside the music, and the discomfort is in the listener’s moral-aesthetic consciousness, preferably after the fact.”