Assigned #15 continues James Saunders’s trajectory of modular, context-sensitive composition. Derived from his long-term project #[Unassigned], this work is scored for seven musicians - violin, viola, cello, percussion, melodica, chamber organ, and objects - each participant given bespoke instructions drawn from Saunders’s accumulated material. Apartment House’s performance (recorded at St Paul's, Huddersfield) embodies Saunders’s philosophy: structure and interpretation are reconfigured for each version, allowing unique realisations that respond to the ensemble’s makeup and acoustic space.
Two long tracks, distinguished only by subtle variations in instruction and timing, unfold patiently. The music never forces a trajectory - resonances linger, intervals and motifs float, textures gather and dissolve. Percussion and organ haze mix with low strings and delicate melodic threads. The piece’s form, always provisional, is sustained by an underlying poetic logic: musicians synchronise and diverge, exploring the “change of context or synchronisation” Saunders prizes. The result is at once static and dynamic - the same material surfacing differently each time, giving listeners a renewed sense of the whole through shifting detail.
Saunders’s approach privileges the autonomy of each performer, encouraging playful deviation and attentive ensemble response. The recording encapsulates his project’s core: absence of a definitive score, emphasis on spatial and temporal contingency, and the fertile ground between process and outcome. Assigned #15 stands as a touchstone in contemporary modular composition, revealing how chamber music’s fluid boundaries allow meaning, memory, and ensemble to recombine in quietly radical ways.
