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I have created this site in order to provide performers, listeners and composers with a description of a composer's experiences with the creative process. The posts will provide discussions of the inspirations, challenges, and successes of a composer from the inception of the piece to the culmination in performance. I will provide a link to where you can see and hear the works in progress. Comments and questions are always welcomed. They will not posted unless you grant me permission.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

High Desert Apparitions for Soprano Sax and Piano 2nd Movement

This is the second movement of a composition for soprano saxophone and piano, called High Desert Apparitions, being written as a result of a commissioning consortium. It is in three movements at a graduate or professional level. The first movement is called Shapeshifters (Skinwalkers or yee naaldlooshii). These are evil creatures that appear as humans or as animals. This movement has the piano representing the human form and the saxophone representing various animals. The second movement is Mirages. This movement is ethereal with an interplay of soft sustained notes between instruments. The last movement will be Ancestral Spirits. This movement would use Native American sounding melodic lines and would be uplifting in character. The composition would be 8-10 minutes in length. For more information about the consortium, please visit http://cooppress.net

This movement is very free in form. Mirages in the desert appear as a steady mirage or as a wavy mirage. The saxophone sustained notes begin and end with no vibrato and have subtle vibrato or timbre trill added in the middle of the note. The piano clusters represent the vagueness of the mirage. The fast note patterns represent the fleetingness of a mirage. The dynamics are soft throughout.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Dr. B


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