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Sextet (1999) Duration: 8'15" Written on a fellowship and in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival and School Winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Award Premiere: Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Jonathan Schiffman, conductor, Aspen Music Festival and School, Center for Composition Studies Advanced Master Class Concert, Harris Concert Hall, Aspen CO, July 16, 1999. Publisher: Bill Holab Music
Although this sextet is not intended to openly convey a specific program, the work itself is inspired by television shows that expose people in the act of committing crimes. The form and materials are developed from imaginary scenes depicting a day in the life of a criminal: running scared (from the police), traveling on the interstate, having nightmares while sleeping (probably in a rundown motel in the middle of nowhere off Old Route 66), looming shadows and hysterical visions, breaking out in cold sweat when someone supposedly comes looking and traveling again at 1:00 a.m. As you would expect, the unfortunate criminal is finally caught in the end.
– Robert Paterson
Review of a performance by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble: "The first half was lively, opening with Robert Paterson's Sextet. Beware the generic name, this piece for violin (Natalie Shaw), cello (Norbert Lewandowski), flute (Lindsey Goodman), clarinet (Campbell MacDonald), piano (Keith Kirchoff) and percussion (David Skidmore), was a brilliant riff on TV real crime shows. Seeing "Cops" and other shows as packaging real emotion for comfortable consumption, Paterson instead infused the work with a nervous energy—the real sweat on the brow of a perp who knows the jig is up. From strident whistles to a siren imitated in a violin glissando to anxious rhythms, this piece definitely got its man."
– Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review of the New York City, Merkin Hall premiere by the Da Capo Chamber Players: "The concert opened with Robert Paterson's entertaining Sextet, inspired by "television shows that expose people in the act of committing crimes," perhaps referring to Cops, a long-running and popular show in the United States. With periodic and startling whistle blasts, the format covers a criminal’s day of running from the police, traveling by car, breaking out in a cold sweat in a motel and finally getting caught, after a colorful rumba chase scene."
– Bruce Hodges, MusicWeb International
"Robert Paterson's Sextet opened the concert with vibrant sonorities and rhythms, compelling music that showcased the musicians' expertise."
– Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
– Christopher Rouse, Composer Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music Winner of a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition
"I particularly loved your Sextet—it capped off and summed up the evening well, I believe. Just a full sound and rich textures but constantly moving forward—not easy to have both, but you did and it was exciting!"
– David Ludwig, Composer Composition Faculty, Director of the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Curtis Institute of Music
"...laced with humorous touches.... Sextet is filled with antic flurries of motion, police whistles, and scurrying gestures, bringing to mind a crime-caper film."
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