Sonata For Solo Tenor Saxophone (Needs MAJOR Revision)

This was another piece I did for my senior recital, but, I just barely got it onto the program and it really, really, REALLY needs a lot of work. I'm not even sure how playable some parts are from the score. I need to figure out if I'm exceeding any limits in that regard, first thing. Then I need to restructure it.

I feel like the 2nd movement is the most 'complete' (although I think the B section and subsequent development needs some work), while the first movement has some solid material but is lacking and the third movement is quite questionable. Is the third movement playable as written?

Overall throughout the piece a main theme is using the instrument to outline what the harmonies would be, while the melody is still well pronounced.

I have a live performance but it was essentially sight-read at the last minute and my scores were not very helpful with the state they were in, so there are quite a lot of technical errors in this recording (my fault, not the performer, lol). I also have a VST mp3.

Any tips on salvaging this into something really cool would be greatly appreciated!

I heard the live version, and honestly couldn't find that many faults, altough I could chalk it up at this being a totally unknown piece for me. Nevertheless, it struck to me as slightly "disjointed" overall - meaning I would have wanted smoother transitions rather than an excessively episodic treatment. Granted, this is quite tough to do when writing for a solo instrument, but there's still enough good musical material here not to work it up into an improved work. Thanks for sharing!

On 5/26/2016 at 10:00 AM, Austenite said:

I heard the live version, and honestly couldn't find that many faults, altough I could chalk it up at this being a totally unknown piece for me. Nevertheless, it struck to me as slightly "disjointed" overall - meaning I would have wanted smoother transitions rather than an excessively episodic treatment. Granted, this is quite tough to do when writing for a solo instrument, but there's still enough good musical material here not to work it up into an improved work. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for the feedback! I think, if you compare the recording to the midi, you might notice a lot of the differences. Especially in the third movement. He had to take a lot of passages down the octave from what was written and even had some almost improvisational moments and I am wondering how playable it is. He couldn't really give me a definitive answer on that because he barely had time to look over it and he practically sight-read the performance (again, that's on me, not him. lol) But my main concern is if there are parts where I am legitimately asking too much of the performer.

Another notable case of this is that big scale at the end of the first movement. He wasn't able to take it all the way up to the final note at that speed and volume and I wonder if it was just because of the circumstances of the performance, or if it is just simply too demanding on the instrument?