Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Band

as cool as robin

real cool jazzzz

It was very good. Parts of it I wish I had written myself! :)

You have a very cool piece here, and that's some champion saxophone-ing. I'd recommend you send it to Oberlin, only the cut their saxophone major this last year. There are still jazz saxophonists though - and they'd probably be better at it anyway...

as a capable saxophonist, I will say that it is clearly playable. I will strong disagree that a jazz-only saxophonist would be best at playing it. Just listen to the recording, style by that saxophonist is great. Parts of it reminded me of Peck's Upward Stream. The altissimo is only slightly demanding in one spot. the rest is fine. many people would perform this i think. a great college piece.

I really liked listening to this!

Good -scratch that- Great! job.

I play alto sax myself too.

You should be extremely proud of this work. And I encourage you to stick around on the forum and comment on other users' pieces.

The flashy intro was both bombastic and frantic enough to immediately catch my attention. I especially loved the fact that you remained within the same motives as the background textures remained the same. The same motives repeat themselves within the dissonance of the brass and allow themselves to be developed significantly as the chaos subsides into a more pensive atmosphere.

That being said, using your brass mainly for tension and dissonance really is relegating them to an overused and slightly cliche role... I think that near the end of the first fourth of the piece, a consonant brass chord would have been far more surprising and tense than a dissonant brass chord. That being said, I do love the major sevenths split across clarinets and flutes.

Near the end of the first third of the piece, I feel like the music is starting to lose that drive and energy it had to start... Mainly because the harmony is so static and lacking modulation.. You certainly could have used that calmer section to bring about some tonal drive.

Some of the multiphonics near the end of the first half of the piece were a bit out of place, I feel... Too uncontrolled and too unsupported. They stick out of the texture too much. And by halfway through, those initial motivic jumps get to be a bit old.. there isn't as much variation on those as I'd like.

-2nd section-

I LOVE the pensive nature of this section... it's such a contrast to the dissonance that you brought about earlier. That is what form is all about, after all... balance and contrast. The slow buildup to the explosion of brass was very well done, I feel.

Near the last fourth of the piece, I feel like you repeated the same motives a bit TOO much... so much so that there was a definite lack of direction.

I suppose my main complaint with this piece would be the role of the supporting instruments. This is a concerto for alto saxophone AND wind band, is it not? I would have expected some interplay between the alto and the wind band, but nearly all of the time the wind band was stuck playing chords or clusters. So for your next piece, that would definitely be something to work on.

Still, I must commend you on writing a concerto for the alto sax and not pushing it exclusively into a jazz role. That's one of the biggest reasons why I originally didn't want to stay on the alto saxophone...

Congratulations on the performance and on the excellent piece!

Dear lord, I couldn't imagine playing that, much less composing it. I salute you for that.

I love it. :D

Did you spend much time listening to Ibert or Creston before writing this? Some echoes of the Persichetti parable too. Fantastic work for the saxophone, and if I had the time and a horn on hand I'd learn this (I only own a tenor, but I played alto throughout undergrad).

Most of what needs to be said has been said... Wow. Let's have the piano reduction, please (maybe piano and drumset).

It's a great piece. I'm even more impressed by your playing.

Do you know of the "Sax on the Web" forum? If not, check it out. I think you should publish your work there. The saxophonist there will be glad to know that you have written such a great piece for Saxophone solo. IMHO, saxophone is a versatile instrument deserving more attention in classical music.