Infinity: In Memoriam Per Nørgård

Paul Alexander Lessard

General Info

Year of Published: 2026
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:05:25
Cost: Score and Parts - $24.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Instrumentation

Player 1: Tenor Saxophone
Player 2: Vibraphone

Program Notes

Infinity was composed in 2025-2026 for Slair, my duo with percussionist Matthew Geiger. In spring 2025, Dr. Geiger and I performed Danish composer Per Nørgård’s piece, Proteus, on several recitals as part of a “music by living composers” program. Not long after, however, Mr. Nørgård passed away. "Infinity" is written as a tribute to him.

Compositionally, I borrowed two elements from Per Nørgård when writing this piece: self-similarity – the repetition of material with subtle modifications each time – and the “infinity series,” a mathematical model to which "Infinity" owes its name.

All of the piece's pitch material is drawn from this series, with the occasional use of the tritone that forms the scale’s axis of symmetry.

As with many mathematical series, the infinity series can sometimes be chaotic. At times, it hovers tightly around one or two integers. At other times, especially as one progresses further and further into the series, it can veer wildly around, a fact that I used to my compositional advantage in the later parts of "Infinity" to create a rambunctious finale of extreme changes of meter, dynamics, and register.

"Infinity" was premiered in March 2026 at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at The Ohio State University.

Works for Percussion by this Composer

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