Gate
Graham Fitkin (2001)
This piece started from one thing – a trill. The alternation of two adjacent notes gives rise to
a simple and constant grouping of beats. Place it in different temporal contexts and the
inherent quality of the trill is questioned.
Fujiko
Andy Scott (2005)
Fujiko is a feature for either soprano or tenor saxophone which initially explores the low
register of the instrument before embarking on a journey upwards! A beautifully scored
reflective and melancholy piece.
KUKU
Barry Cockcroft (1997)
A note from the composer:
I had been studying in France and one of the last pieces that I performed was Berio’s
Sequenza VIIb for soprano saxophone. As I tend to do when practising, I improvised around
the themes of the piece. I often found that to contrast the extreme nature of the Sequenza I
would play long melodic lines. To contrast further with this, I would take some of the
multiphonics used by Berio and add some funky rhythms. When a friend kindly told me that I
sounded like a chicken it was amusing to extend on this idea.Ku Ku remains my most widely
played composition after Black & Blue. Ignoring the spelling apparently:
Kuku in Swahili means chicken. Ku-ku is a type of clock made in the Black forest. Ku Ku
means crazy.
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
(arr. for Soprano Saxophone and Piano)
Claude Debussy (1894)
This symphonic poem is Debussy’s response to Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem by the same
title. Premiered in 1894, this short masterpiece was considered to be a turning point in the
history of music. Telling the story of a faun’s desires and dreams on a hot afternoon nap it
explores his encounters with nymphs before “he succumbs in an intoxicating sleep”.
Mallarmé’s initial reaction to the news of a musical adaptation of his writings was less than
enthused. However, after hearing the work, he writes “Your illustration of the Afternoon of a
Faun, which presents a dissonance with my text only by going much further, really, into
nostalgia and into light, with finesse, with sensuality, with richness. I press your hand
admiringly, Debussy. Yours, Mallarmé.” Iconic for its writing for wind instruments, particularly
the flute, this arrangement for Soprano Saxophone and Piano captures these distinct colours
in a more intimate setting.
The Old Castle from Pictures at an Exhibition
Modest Mussorgsky (1874)
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is piano music, but it has inspired more
orchestrations and arrangements than possibly any other piece of music. And it was one of
these—Ravel’s brilliant and sophisticated orchestration from 1922—that brought this
remarkable music to widespread public attention and even more the feature of an iconic
saxophone solo. They whole work is meant to depict one making their way through an art
gallery stopping an observing each image as they pass. The Old Castle depicted a medieval
castle, with a solitary troubadour included for scale. Mussorgsky places the castle in Italy
with a lilting Siciliano rhythm but the melody has a mournful Russian character. This is where
Ravel cleverly used the saxophone to reflect the travelling musician.
Ruins of a Heartbeat (World Premier)
Peter Hughes (2023)
Influenced by the second movement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition: 'The
Old Castle', I commissioned Peter Hughes to write a piece inspired by the harmonic
language of this and the idea of storytelling in which it encompasses. This piece is for Alto
Saxophone and Piano and was completed in March 2023. Wanting to encapsulate a deeper
idea of story, Hughes discovered a poem by Scottish poet Don Paterson that creates the
perfect image. The poem is as follows:
'So is this magic place to die with us?
I mean that world where memory still holds
the breath of your early life:
the white shadow of first love,
that voice that rose and fell
with your own heart, the hand
you'd dream of closing in your own ...
all those beloved burning things
that dawned on us,
lit up the inner sky?
Is this whole world to vanish when we die,
this life we made new in our fashion?
Have the crucibles and anvils of the soul
been working for the dust and the wind?'
Cadenza
Lucie Robert (1974)
Lucie Robert(-Diessel) was born in Rennes, France in 1936. She studied composition at the
Paris Conservatoire receiving several first prizes. She won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome
in 1965 and was a Professor of Music at the Paris Conservatoire where she taught harmony,
music theory and piano. Robert has been associated with some of the most important
saxophonists such as Daniel Deffayet, Claude Delangle, Jean-Marie Londeix and Michel
Nouaux for whom this piece was written for. Cadenza was composed in 1974; a time in
which composers were looking at the saxophone with a fresh and exciting outlook. Denisov’s
Sonata for alto saxophone and piano from 1970 was groundbreaking in exploring a new
avant-guard style of saxophone writting - particularly with the influence of jazz. Robert also
appears to have adopted this push to rediscover the saxophone. Cadenza has no space for
any complacent treatment of the listener. The music is difficult, without any intention to
compromise.
