Solo for Soprano Saxophone

I'll make my grand return to the forums by uploading a recent work of mine. I just started studying composition in college, and I thought that for my first project I'd do something outside of my traditional workspace. I usually write for solo piano or string quartet, so doing soprano saxophone is something I'm pretty unused to.

The technique I tried to explore a bit was playing into a baby grand piano with the damper down to vibrate strings and have them vibrate underneath me. It didn't work as perfectly as I had hoped, but I think was interesting nonetheless.

I wouldn't consider it a finished work by any means, but it did have a looming due date so I pushed out out the door a bit preemptively. I'd like to explore some motifs a bit more than I did.

The recording of me playing it is a bit messy, and I apologize for that. It was a long day for me :) In addition, an apology for the handwritten score. I just figured it'd be a pain to put it all on Finale and make it the way I wanted it.

Any comments/feedback would be wonderful :)

Bagatelle No 7 for Soprano Saxophone

Also, I know the name is lame but I'm unimaginative. Suggestions?

bagatelle no 7.pdf

On the very last line, 3rd measure from the end, you forgot to write the sharp sign on the C.

I liked this! There wasn't exactly anything new or novel to me, but it would be a very good solo etude for any soprano saxophonist to work up for fun or an audition or something. I definitely think you could expand this with great result. It's just screaming for exaggeration!

Nice job!

It is very nice, and I did see the missing # on the C. :P And on the last bar you have the notes as the same, but in the recording it is a 3rd different. Intended?

For sure it could be extended. I would have hoped the piano was louder! You could have played closer, and it might have worked better. :)

Anyway, good work.

Playing into an undamped piano is an interesting idea, but I think to get much sound out of the piano you would need more low, sustained pitches. It's the overtones that resonate, and it takes a while for the positive feedback to build up to the point that the string vibrations become audible. But once they get started, they should ring for a while. The deeper the pitch, the more strings that should vibrate. It's too bad that the shape of a baritone sax prevents you from playing directly into a grand piano. I wonder if you could take off the panels above and below the keyboard of an upright and do the same thing with a tenor or bari sax? I'll bet if you put in a section where you played a long sustained note, then a note a 5th below and then another note an octave below that--i.e. the fundamental and the first two notes of the overtone series, in reverse order--you could really get those piano strings ringing. Then you could play a sequence of fast notes above the sympathetic piano "accompaniment." Or would you just drown it out?