World Premiere of COLOR THEORY: PRISM Quartet and Sō Percussion

In search of new musical colors, PRISM and Sō Percussion premiere the jazz-influenced “Blue Notes and Other Clashes” by Steven Mackey and a new arrangement of Donnacha Dennehy’s “The Pale.” Mackey, who previously composed masterful works for both ensembles separately, creates the first major octet combining saxophone and percussion quartets. Dennehy’s work is a musical imagining of the area encompassing Dublin called the Pale, where British rule was at its strongest in the 14th century. According to Dennehy, “they even protected this area with ditches and fences to keep the barbarous, thuggish Irish out—the great unwashed were, as the phrase became, ‘beyond the pale.’” Also on the program: the New York premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’ “Saxophone Quartet,” Bryce Dessner’s “Music for Wood & Strings,” and Hymn from Kati Agócs’ “Coluratura.”