In July 2025 the Nexas Quartet gave the Chinese premiere of Carl Vine’s Sawtooth for four saxophones as part of the World Saxophone Congress in Harbin. The quartet previously commissioned the work with the generous support of Carmen Jarrett and Kathie & Reg Grinberg and gave its premiere in November 2023 in Sydney. It is Vine’s first work for the saxophone family.
The title is taken from the ‘sawtooth’ waveform produced by the instrument, which informs various aspects of the piece. The shape is that of a gentle undulation is one direction, and a sharp, acute one in the other – “one that can cut steel”, as Vine puts it. “The sound is at once rough and smooth”, he notes, “and I wanted to dig into both ends of that tactile spectrum, from smooth subtlety through to gruff impactful energy.”
The 10-minute piece opens accordingly with an ebbing, undulating figure, before more dynamic melodic shapes begin to emerge from the homophonic writing, and the texture grows more complex; the four instruments come back together for a jagged, percussive sequence in 7/8. As it continues, the piece takes the rough with the smooth in alternating sections of spiky, dancelike material with cantabile solos for each instrument, starting with the baritone saxophone. As well as premiering the piece, in March 2024 Nexas Quartet presented Sawtooth at the Orange Chamber Music Festival, as part of a collaboration with the restaurant TONIC exploring an imaginative pairing of music and food from chef Tony Worland.