The Listener
Composed: 2003 Duration: 4 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Tenor & Piano Level C
Exam Grade: AMEB Saxophone Tenor Grade 6,
HSC Saxophone Tenor,
VCE Saxophone Tenor
ISMN: M-720019-34-5 Catalogue: RM107
Level: C Country: Australia
Performed by Rompduo (alto sax version)
As I was warming up my sax while Kath was getting hers out for a lesson, I played a few random notes which caught my ear. They were the first six notes of this piece. Later that day, after some exploration, I recorded a semi-improvised piano part and then semi-improvised the sax part. What you see on the page is a cleaned up version of what I did that day. This is the only time I've ever composed this way. Kath is a great Listener and reminded me of it's importance. You should allow your performance to build gradually through the first page and then really soar through the second page before settling down fairly quickly at the end. See if you can make it sound like you improvised it. Get together with the pianist early or play with the midi version of it from the website. It will help you understand the pace and intensity. If you add any jazz inflections, make sure they sound good and that you stay in tune. The beginning is very difficult in that regard so don't try to play any softer than you are able but do work on dropping your dynamic as far as possible and bringing it up as high as you can at the climax.