Instrumentation: Solo Saxophone

Programme notes:

Programme notes provided by composer and can be found in the score:

This work originated as an attempt – as far as I know, the first of its kind – to apply contrapuntal techniques to a monophonic instrument, but also as an experiment in the creation of melody which is at once rigorously canonic in structure and spontaneous in sound, so that the two voices of the canon are perceived as a single melodic line. In the Entrata the second voice (the comes) imitates the first (the dux) at the unison, while the comes in the Sarabanda lies a major third higher than the dux. The most complex canon occurs in the Canzonetta, where the comes represents a retrograde, a minor third lower, of the dux. In the Badenerie the comes is formed by an inversion, starting a perfect fifth lower, of the dux.

Four movement work:

1. Entrata Canone all’unisono
2. Sarabanda Canone alla terza superiore
3. Canzonetta Canone cancrizans
4. Badinerie Canone a moto contrario

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone and piano

Duration: 2:50

Programmatic information:

Programme notes provided by composer and can be found in the score:

The version for double bass and piano on which this one is based was written at the request of Allan van Schenkel.
The title Amar(tan)go conflates the word amargo (bitter) with the name of that most sensuous and, at the same time, most steely of dance-forms, the tango. The work is a paraphrase of the song Hotel from my setting of four poems by Fiona Zerbst entitled Of Darkness and the Heart. The cello’s opening motif forms the basis of the ritornello, announced by the piano, and serves as a recurrent link between the various episodes, in which the soloist deploys a variety of coloristic techniques.

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone and orchestra

Duration: 10:00

Programmatic information:

Programme notes provided by composer and can be found in the score:

Commissioned by the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre for Hamman Schoonwinkel

Maestoso -Allegretto espressivo – Alla marcia – Vivo

The Concerto consists of a single movement containing elements of traditional sonata form (exposition-development-recapitulation) and of the three movements (fast, slow, fast) that are normally associated with the concerto.

The brief introduction (Maestoso) starts with an important element, a characteristic rhythm first heard on the brass. This element,together with the melodic use of the raised fourth degree, figures prominently in the first of the two themes of the
exposition (or “first movement”). A cadenza based on these two themes forms the first part of the development section,
while the second part is formed by a “slow movement” based on motifs from the introduction. The return of the
rhythmic motto from the introduction leads to the recapitulation, which takes the form of a march-like “third
movement.” The two themes of the “first movement” now appear in the guise of a spirited “march” in 3/4 time, which is
followed by a lively coda in which all the themes put in a brief appearance.

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone and organ

Instrumentation: Baritone saxophone and orchestra

Instrumentation: Alto saxophone and piano

Duration: 7:36

Premier information: Premiered on October 24, 2021 at the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors (NACWPI) 2021 National Conference. Performed by Dr. Michael Davis (saxophone), Dr. Xiao Wang (piano).

Programmatic information:

Programme notes provided by composer and can be found in the score:

Commissioned by Cameron Williams

The connection between music and sorcery has been imbedded in the human psyche through the
ages, and survives even in our positivist age in the use of a word such as ‘enchantment.’
Necromancer explores that relationship through the interaction between the instruments, both of
which act as enchanter and enchanted at various points in the musical narrative, but also through the
use of extended techniques on the saxophone. These techniques, which go beyond the standard
sound production of the instrument, have always had for me a supernatural quality, and are
therefore readily exploitable as musical symbols of the paranormal. The work is in the form of a
fantasy, but adheres to a binary principle according to which each idea is reprised at least once
within a discourse of free development and transformation.

Instrumentation: For Sopranista (or Soprano saxophone, or Tenor saxophone), Alto Saxophone, spoken text and strings

Programmatic information: Text by composer. For Calvin Wells.

Instrumentation: Flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, horn and bassoon

Duration: 13:00

Programmatic information:

Programme notes provided by the composer and can be found in the score:

Commissioned by the University of Massachusetts for Bandwith. 

This work was inspired by the legend of St Francis’ sermon to the birds as related in the fourteenth-century text, I fioretti di San Francesco. The first section of the work consists of a lively ritornello alternating with episodes in which individual instruments suggest the calls of real and imaginary birds, at times imitating each other. In the latter part, the phrases of St Francis’s message, entrusted to the horn, are interspersed with reactions from the birds before they join him in a joyous hymn. After being blessed by him, the birds fly off, carrying his message of humility and gratitude out into the world (Source: Taken from the original score).

Instrumentation: Tenor saxophone and orchestra

Programmatic information:

This work, in the traditional three movements of the Classical concerto, makes more explicit use of jazz scales than its two predecessors, the Alto and Baritone Sax Concertos. It nevertheless remains largely Classical in form and expression, even when evoking a dance form such as the foxtrot.

The sonata-form first movement is built around two contrasting themes, a sombre one announced over a dark, murmurous string texture and a lively theme exploiting a variety of motives and orchestral colours. The movement opens with a solemn, chordal brass fanfare of which elements recur throughout the first theme. It also underpins, in the form of a gradually accumulating harmonic pedal point, the entire development section. The climactic resolution of the pedal point onto alternating statements of the fanfare and first theme in the home key marks the start of the varied recapitulation. A cadenza for the saxophone, based on its countermelody to the first theme, is interposed before the reprise of the second theme. Running semiquaver figure for the soloist mark the start of the brief cods, which end with a short reference to the head-motif of the first theme.

Many elements of the second movement are linked to ones in the first. The harmonic pyramid which opens the movement recalls the cumulative compound from the development section of the preceding movement. It culminates in motif of an ascending and descending semitone on the flute, evoking the cor anglais figure from which the first theme of the first movement evolved. As in that instance, the figure is taken up by the soloist, who, after a brief cadenza, uses it as link into the main theme of the new movement. After a climax is reached, a return of the harmonic pyramid leads to a lullaby-like secondary theme. The varied reprise of the first section is followed by a coda in which the head-motif of the secondary theme alternates with two new ideas derived from earlier material.

As in the first movement, the head-motif of the main theme, now heard as a meditative peroration, concludes the movement. The playful finale combines elements of ternary, rondo and variation form while also referencing motifs from the earlier movements. The fast first theme is transformed into a slower, more lyrical one and then combined with it.

The melody of the foxtrot which forms the middle section is also derived from the first theme, but its chromaticism recalls the main theme of the second movement. This theme is fused with elements of the first theme of the first movement in the cadenza which precedes the reprise and coda, both of which feature further development of all the themes.

Instrumentation: Soprano saxophone and orchestra