Rumor of Ancient Rains - Eb Alto Saxophone & Piano

This is a piece that I composed for a Composition Studio Recital at West Texas A&M University. This was my first serious work as a composition student, so I would love any comments, good or bad (constructive criticism). The piece was premiered on November 25, 2008 by Don Lefevre, Professor of Saxophone at WTAMU.

Rumor of Ancient Rains for Eb Alto Saxophone and Piano

I forgot to include the score, in case anybody is interested.

Rumor of Ancient Rains.pdf

This piece is really wonderful. He is such a talented saxophonist. I wish I was there to see this being played. Good job on everyone's part. This piece was one of the most beautiful I have heard in a while. I think I might start writing for saxophone.

Thank you for your kind words - I'm glad that you enjoyed the piece ^_^ You should definitely write for the saxophone, it's a great instrument!

its pretty nice!!! i love the part at 2.17 . ive never thought sax could be that awesome !!! and the piano is wonderful! good job !

Well, as a saxophonist, I feel some obligation to comment on this... :)

Hmmm, the majority of your music seems idiomatic for the saxophone. Do you by chance have the saxophone score? There are spots where there are awkward key jumps and they were very clear because your performer made clear mistakes there. Aside from those awkward key jumps, the piece is fairly easy as you probably know already.

The music itself... I'm interested as to what specific techniques you used because it has a very textural and color-oriented feel to it which I like, but perhaps there is too much of this writing in the repertoire already. I don't know what form or organization you were specifically going for, but it certainly sounded coherent and organized, though I think the piece could use some literal and symbolic development of themes. You have some great motives, but coherency isn't enough without some direction.

As for the writing for the piano, it's pretty good given the style. If it was anything else, I'd be cringing at the open intervals, but it seems to work given the textural emphasis. You manage to give the accompaniment some melodic interest too, which is highly admirable.

As for the saxophone writing, there are numerous techniques which I think you should be aware of when writing another piece for the instrument such as altissimo, bends, scoops, shakes, multiphonics, timbral considerations. Make it more interesting for the soloist :P.

Good job on your first real composition, though. Keep writing!

Not too much to say other than that is a gorgeous piece. Very well put together, great job!

Do you by chance have the saxophone score?

I have attached a .pdf file of the saxophone part for you Maelstrom.

I really appreciate your interest in the piece! I am double-majoring in Saxophone Performance and Music Theory & Composition, so I thought a saxophone piece would suit me well as a first piece.

I don't know what form or organization you were specifically going for...

The form is a standard Sonata-Allegro form:

AB (repeated), development of themes, AB

although there is certainly a little bit of variation within the form, this is the general idea.

I really appreciate the positive feedback and helpful advice you have all left for me. I hope to post some more work in the new future.

Rumor of Ancient Rains - Solo.pdf

Thank you!

And may I suggest that when using Sibelius scores, you use the Helsinki music notation font? I just think it looks more circular.. more professional that is.

As for the form of your piece, just my personal views on sonata form is complete juxtaposition of contrasting subject groups, whereas your subject groups in this sonata are fairly similar in spite of the tempo change. I see that you used some expanded sentences, which is cool. I think what mainly threw me off was the section at 49 which has very little in common with the identifying motifs of theme A or theme B as far as I can see. Probably with more detailed listening and analysis, I'd see more similarities...

From 73 onwards, it's good that you are relating themes and beginning to connect the motives, but a large part of the solo part seems to be simply scales which, although they might be part of your themes, aren't very useful for thematic connection. If you look at the romantic concertos, the scalar or arpeggiated passages usually occur when a subgroup or group of the orchestra has foreground thematic material.

Besides that, you're welcome and I do look forward to those pieces! :)

fine piece!!!! congrats!

Thank you frantz!