ABSTRACT
Anna Clyne composed Choke in 2004 for baritone saxophone and tape—the “tape” a digital fixed-media part. Created for Argeo Ascani, Choke has a colorful palette of musical sounds. The saxophonist plays a wide variety of sounds, from regularly pitched tones to key clicks, and from multiphonics to what Clyne calls “growling vocalizations” (Clyne 2014). The tape part consists of samples, virtually all of which are of the baritone saxophone changed through digital editing; the one exception is a gong sample. 1 Throughout the piece, the source of the tape sounds is often not sonically apparent and these sounds take on their own timbral identity, evoking a variety of worldly associations.
