CONCERTO FOR SOPRANO SAXOPHONE AND STRING ORCHESTRA

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and String Orchestra began with the creation of the second movement first. This is not unusual for me or other composers who often write movements and even sections of the same movement “out of order”. Sometimes the shape of the whole piece just doesn’t present itself until a considerable amount of it has been written. Then, usually in a flash of insight, the work reveals its form. Three years ago, the second movement, originally titled “Tenebrae”, was first performed at Brookside Community Church with English horn and string quartet. Last year after attending a Colonial Symphony concert at Delbarton where “The Seasons” by Vivaldi was performed, the entire concerto revealed itself using “Tenebrae” as the second movement, performed either on English horn or oboe, and adding two faster outer movements to balance the middle. I also decided to mimic Baroque contrapuntal techniques but maintained 21st-century harmony and rhythm. This work is a re-orchestration of a previous work of mine titled Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra written in 2002.

CONCERTO FOR OBOE AND STRING ORCHESTRA

Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra began with the creation of the second movement first. This is not unusual for me or other composers who often write movements and even sections of the same movement “out of order”. Sometimes the shape of the whole piece just doesn’t present itself until a considerable amount of it has been written. Then, usually in a flash of insight, the work reveals its form. Three years ago, the second movement, originally titled “Tenebrae”, was first performed at Brookside Community Church with English horn and string quartet. Last year after attending a Colonial Symphony concert at Delbarton where “The Seasons” by Vivaldi was performed, the entire concerto revealed itself using “Tenebrae” as the second movement, performed either on English horn or oboe, and adding two faster outer movements to balance the middle. I also decided to mimic Baroque contrapuntal techniques but maintained 21st-century harmony and rhythm.

SERENADE

“How does one portray a person in music?” was the question I asked myself again when I began to write Serenade. I had actually tackled this question before in a previous work titled Three Portraits for tuba and chamber orchestra in which the person musically sketched was Scott Mendoker, close friend and tubist. Now I wanted to portray my wife, Christine, my two sons, Benjamin and Mark, and myself. What I chose to do was concentrate on personalities. And since we are quite a close-knit family, it seemed natural to intertwine these personalities into a single twelve-minute movement.
The next decision centered on which instrument would best represent us. For a long time, I had wanted to write something for an instrument that was not terribly familiar and has a minuscule repertoire: a flügelhorn. Since this instrument is to the brass family (I am a trumpet player) what the viola is to the string family (my wife is a violist), somehow the connection seemed to fit. And I had vivid recollections and photos of both of my kids dragging my flügelhorn around my studio when they were very young.
The personalities are presented in this order: me; my wife; my very cool thirteen-year-old son, Benjamin; my nine-year-old son, Mark, bugging the hell out of his brother, Benjamin.