Baritone Saxophone Sonatina No 1: 'Dream Wheel'

On the 5th May 2010, I was given the opportunity to write a piece for a visiting Virtuoso Saxophonist. I originally had 10 days to write the piece, but with a busy schedule, and the allowance for rehearsal time, the initial time frame was reduced to approximately 48 hours.Baritone Saxophone Sonatina No 1: 'Dream Wheel'

Very beautiful, great work. Piano was remarkable, and the Saxophone sounded pretty good. It also made sense when you gave the Saxophone an improvisatory feel, only problem was that sometimes it would overlap the piano way too much which also had a beautiful part.

Over all i enjoyed it, and was pretty impressed that you pulled it off in 48 hours.

Cheers!

Jamal

Sounds pretty good hones: I have to say, though, I can't hear the piano much over the sax part... I don't know if it's the scoring, the performance or the recording, but it sounded like the piano had a very interesting part that I couldn't discern.

Thank you for your kind words! I wrote this to exploit the lyrical voice of a bass instrument.

The piano part is just chords played in an arpeggiated motion to simulate the the wheel, with the overall feeling of the piece being atmospheric and dreamy.

I had an idea that I had written using a more modern style with contemporary writing, but, I was unhappy with the final product, so I started again with a melody that I had in my head the whole time I was writing the original piece.

Again thanks for your kind words!

Woah, excellent piece!! I'm happy someone gave the bari sax some love - I'm a bari player myself. I think this piece is awesome! Great work! I don't envy the performer on the last trill there, seeing as how it would all be with the left pinky, unless I'm somehow mistaken and unaware of some trick or something....

Great work, beautiful! Bravo!!

-MF

Very nice work but what is the deal with that last note? The performer couldn't really execute it and he is a pretty strong player. Beyond that, it seems a little out of place with the rest of the piece. It was very beautiful and simple. I would have liked to hear even a little more simplicity in repetitiveness in the melody.

Very magical and pleasant piece :) The recording really takes away from the piano though, and the sax is all really one can hear when it's playing...

Aside from that, it's beautiful work ;) Thanks for sharing with us!

The solo instrument caught my attention, so I had to listen to this. I have to say... very nice! Ordinarily I yell at people for repeating stuff so much, but you wrote this in 48 hours, got a live performance, have an amazingly prepared score, and you worked with a beautiful musical idea. This is the first of your pieces I've heard and if this is indicative of the rest of your music, I really like your style. REALLY like.

In the recording the bari didn't always sound smooth... but hey, there's a good reason we've always named bari sax players "chainsaw" in the bands I've been in. And unfortunately the recording favoured the sax over the piano - but I can tell that's not your fault, it was mic'ing. Beautiful showcase for the bari sax, kudos on a nice simple, effective work!

Now why do you call it "Dream Wheel"?

Agh. This piece is brilliant, your ideas are fresh and certainly a pleasant break from a lot of the stuff on here, I loved your development and elaboration of the ideas you stated, and that last note in the bassoon was a lovely touch. I don't think I have anything negative to say, I loved the writing you did for piano, it seems as if you wrote this for Piano and Sax as opposed to Sax accompanied by piano. Once again, brilliant, LOVED listening.