Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été

Score PDF and Audio Download

About the Piece:

This piece is written for 4 soprano saxophones.

It has three movements: “La soie,” “Le ciel,” and “Le soir.”

Each movement is based on a stanza from the original poem by Paul Verlaine, “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.”

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I - La soie (The silk)

“Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été

Le grand soleil, complice de ma joie,

Fera, parmi le satin et la soie,

Plus belle encor votre chère beauté;”

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II - Le ciel (The sky)

“Le ciel tout bleu, comme une haute tente,

Frissonnera somptueux à longs plis

Sur nos deux fronts qu'auront pâlis

L'émotion du bonheur et l'attente;”

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III - Le soir (The evening)

“Et quand le soir viendra, l'air sera doux

Qui se jouera, caressant, dans vos voiles,

Et les regards paisibles des étoiles

Bienveillamment souriront aux époux.”

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Entry:Un clair jour d'été

Average Score: 10

Review: I was blew away by this entry. Great job.

Edited September 19Sep 19 by Kvothe
Re score

12 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

Please before entering a piece for a competition, read what is required. For unfortunately, I have DQ your entry solely based on that.

1. it failed to meet time requirement

2. and the instrument requirement.

@Kvothe Please don't spread misinformation like this about the contest entries. The piece is 6 and a half minutes long and therefore meets the duration requirements of being between 3 - 7 minutes long. The piece is also written for a quartet of saxophones which is an acceptable instrumentation as the competition is for 3 - 5 individual instruments.

@PeterthePapercomPoser I am sorry about that. 😕 I will reverse what I said. And rescore it.

It’s been forever since I done this sort of method of judging with sort of a transcript of a judge tape, but I’m going to try it for this piece or what basically happens is that I listen and I speak my notes in here. This allows me to pull things up immediately that I have noticed rather than using my memory.

I appreciate the little dissonances and passing tones in the first Movement and the model interchange as well

(2nd movement) This sounds very medieval like a quartet of crumhornes I kinda like the stylistic blending of the baroque, and also the medieval sound and sort of that renaissance, sort of idea  in good attention to dynamics the trio given in the middle of the second movement does a good job to give the listener sort of a pallet cleanser and to redirect the energy and attention

I appreciate how you use the full instrument of the Sopranos saxophone although that there it would be much nicer for a full sax Quartet (satb) I still give major respect to the versatility you present with only one instrument that is held by four different players

The third movement has a good range of dynamics, and I love the low end of the dynamic spectrum given in the opening statement. I also like the harmony being used as well giving a Coventry Carol feel

This also should represent the sunset as well in the idea of a sunset.   Lovely ending with a pickerdty third.

i’ll now give my scoring and explain any faults that may have happened

your average is 8.91. excellent quality on your composition. Also, did you perform the whole entire thing if this was a live recording then kudos to you

anyways, I had explained your orchestration score. If only you used more members of the sax family you may be able to get a much more wider sound however though your purpose kinda does justify though if you want to keep it just to one instrument.

just like I had said to other entries, I had tanked the creativity score however, though I kind of brought a little bit up to you due to the creative melody and the creative harmony, and feel that your piece gives off it kinda does fit that cookie cutter idea of that aesthetic that everybody else is convergently going for so there’s not really much uniqueness in that purpose purpose there.

other than that excellent job

1 hour ago, Fruit hunter said:

Also, did you perform the whole entire thing if this was a live recording then kudos to you

Thanks for the feedback.
I recorded each part separately with a click track, except for the third movement which was fully rubato.

As for the instrumentation, I wanted it to have a choral feeling, with the instruments being equal in range and timbre. I also quite like the sound of close harmonies, especially harmonies found in barbershop quartets, which is what inspired the first movement.

30 minutes ago, Ninja Nolan said:

recorded

mad respect for that

Hello @Ninja Nolan !

When I first came around to read your explanation of the submission and took quick look at the score, I asked myself, “How is this supposed to work?” and “How is this supposed to sound?” when you put four soprano saxophones together in an ensemble. Isn’t it a mistake to combine instruments of the same register—and even the same timbre? Wouldn’t they get in each other’s way?

But after listening to (just the first few minutes of) your piece, I was proven wrong: I have to admit that the four saxophones blend together so beautifully, without any clashes or overlapping! I also get the impression that I sometimes hear the timbre of other woodwind instruments, such as a flute or an oboe (that’s a bit like a sommelier tasting a wine and raving about how it has notes of wild berries, melon, or even pepper…).

I - La soie (The silk)

The first movement has for me a very calming atmosphere, somewhat like a lullaby. Another impression was that it reminds me somewhat of pieces which are played at Christmas time, but than with a brass ensemble (i.e. „Posaunenchor“) and in a different seasonal mood.

II - Le ciel (The sky)

The second movement reminds me of a dance at Thanksgiving – I mean a Baroque-style dance (while I can’t – since I’m not familiar with the characteristics of those dances – say whether it’s a Gavotte, a Sarabande or a Galliard …). I very like the sometimes humorous passages, as for example, in mm. 36 or at the beginning of the Trio in mm. 56.

Le soir (The evening)

A more melancholic movement, that arises a picture of sitting around a campfire, thus really capturing the mood of a late summer evening.

Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures:

The piece uses beautiful, simple melodies and harmonies, which are sometimes „spiced up“ with some dissonances (such as in the first movement, mm. 18-20) - which I very liked.

The textures are – while being relatively simple – well balanced. For that reason, I most liked the texture of the opening section of movement three, mm. 1-16 for their slightly couterpuntual approach.

Form Development Structure Time:

Since consisting of multiple movements and featuring a „dance“ in the second movement, the form could perhaps described as a suite. The movements are well developed and the entire piece perfectly meets the time requirements.

Originality Creativity:

The piece is original and unique among the submissions for its instrumentation and the use of the „suite“ form in three movements.

Score Presentation:

The score is clear and professional with no issues. I very like your descriptive program notes at the beginning.

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability:

As always said, the instrumentation seems at the first glance somewhat „adventurous“, but has been brilliantly mastered. I think, there are no playability issues, since it doesn’t seem to be „difficult“.

Execution of Given Challenge:

You have chosen the three stanzas of the poem and created three movements, each with a clear, distinct mood, trying to depict „The silk“, „The sky“ and „The evening“ as they are the topic of those stanzas.

If listening to the music evokes images whose seasonal mood sometimes differs from that of a summer day, this should be considered merely my personal opinion.

Taste:

It's a piece that's pleasant to listen to and has a calming effect. However, it might not be the kind of piece I would listen to every day.

Average Score: 9.375

Hi Nolan,
Welcome to the forum! What a beautiful piece you have created and we appreciate you having created it for this competition. Now, it comes time to leave my review and I wish to address some things first.

I am attaching a brief annotated copy of the score PDF. I do not have the time to sit down and do a proper analysis, so I focused on some light engraving things and will elaborate my detailed thoughts on the music in this comment instead. Please see it attached at the end of this comment.

SCORE PRESENTATION:

You have a very good understanding of score presentation, yet there are things you missed in the front matter and for your overall page layout. The first two pages of your document should be a cover page and another blank page. Why? Due to printing.
The cover page is there to showcase what the score is, however the second page will act as the BACK of the cover page. So you need to keep the second page BLANK as it is the backside of the cover page. The Instrumentation page/ notes will then begin on the third page of the document. Currently, your notes begin on the backside of the cover page. To add, what is missing in the front matter is the instrumentation page. You did a shortcut by putting "written for four soprano saxophones" on the cover, yet that information is dedicated for the instrumentation page. Simply by the fact of you stating "Saxophone Quartet" on the cover implies four saxophones, yet it could mean "Sop. Alto, Ten. and Bari," or any combination. Thus, we need a note on the instrumentation to clear up the confusion BEFORE the first page of music.

Your notes for each movement are fine, however, double check your fonts as it looks a little skewed to see font changes.

On the first page of the score, you are missing key information like the title, what score it is, the composer field, copyright info, and movement number. See attached PDF for this point.

MUSIC:
Impressive to have read you recorded it on your own, and refreshing to hear non-midi renditions for something like this! This said, my main critique with the music is its homophonic nature. I feel you missed several opportunities to make the music have more motion and interest. Instead, you use all four saxophones for almost the entire time, stick to largely homophonic textures, parallel motions, and in the end, while pleasant sounding, becomes a little lackluster as a whole.

The second movement is the best of the three in my opinion because of the variety in texture. Overall, this work is classical in style, and without breaking the style, I believe one suggestion is to keep the beat or divisions of the beat intact. To keep motion, simply adding a constant pulse of the 8th note in the texture. Mess with the tessitura of the instruments, and have them play low for prolonged periods, or even adding non-chord tones via suspensions and syncopation would be great.

There are plenty of devices worth exploring and I think in later editions, you can experiment more.

Also, in terms of the recording, be careful of having soprano 1 start on Pianissimo in the first movement. That high in the range and with such little air support is asking for someone to play sharp, and in the recording, you initial statement was sharp in the first soprano. This was also true for exposed notes in the pianissimo dynamic throughout the work.

Good work on this piece and we'll be eager to hear the next one!

N. Musonda - Un clair jour d’été [ANNOTATED].pdf