Yoshimatsu, Takashi - Saxophone Concerto
Bird in Color: Allegro
This movement is exciting, very similar to the sonata, especially with the inclusion of piano, and gives piece a chamber feel. Same feel as the Sonata. It’s really the Sonata writ large. The percussive elements are entertaining and provide interesting colours, as the movement requires. A dark moment ensues, the bird is trapped, she sings plaintively. The range of birdsong is generally in a much higher tessitura than the standard alto saxophone range, cf. Radio 4's Tweet of the Day. The faux-jazz moments are a little awkward, and the colours and effects work far better. A frantic fluttering and panic as our avian friend tries to escape. She’s terrified, the predator nearly has her. But a greater beast comes to her rescue. She thanks her new friend, and delighted, sings her song again.
Bird in Grief: Andante
Another scene, her chick has perished, she doesn’t understand. She nudges it and pokes at it hopelessly. Fallen Nature red in tooth and claw. The saxophone takes up her lament. Could be used on an Attenborough documentary. The harmony hangs in the air, movement, progress and hope are illusory. There is no change now, only the onward struggle to survive. Saxophone and woodwinds interact as a sad, confused conversation between birds, maybe the male returns to find his chick gone, his mate bereft. Death: the terror of kings and the king of terrors. The bird is surely some great bird of prey, perhaps an eagle, hawk or even an owl. Mourning continues and now the seasons move on, life must go on. The chamber feel returns with the piano and percussive interjections.
Bird in the Wind: Presto
References the first movement, is similarly impressionistic but with more rhythmic thrust and effort. The bird now sores, perhaps a swift in a grand migration with the flock. They pass miles of landscape, countryside, towns, even oceans, onwards, ever onwards they fly. Wild improvisations occur as bird calls to bird and the journey is nearly completed. Arrival.
This movement is exciting, very similar to the sonata, especially with the inclusion of piano, and gives piece a chamber feel. Same feel as the Sonata. It’s really the Sonata writ large. The percussive elements are entertaining and provide interesting colours, as the movement requires. A dark moment ensues, the bird is trapped, she sings plaintively. The range of birdsong is generally in a much higher tessitura than the standard alto saxophone range, cf. Radio 4's Tweet of the Day. The faux-jazz moments are a little awkward, and the colours and effects work far better. A frantic fluttering and panic as our avian friend tries to escape. She’s terrified, the predator nearly has her. But a greater beast comes to her rescue. She thanks her new friend, and delighted, sings her song again.
Bird in Grief: Andante
Another scene, her chick has perished, she doesn’t understand. She nudges it and pokes at it hopelessly. Fallen Nature red in tooth and claw. The saxophone takes up her lament. Could be used on an Attenborough documentary. The harmony hangs in the air, movement, progress and hope are illusory. There is no change now, only the onward struggle to survive. Saxophone and woodwinds interact as a sad, confused conversation between birds, maybe the male returns to find his chick gone, his mate bereft. Death: the terror of kings and the king of terrors. The bird is surely some great bird of prey, perhaps an eagle, hawk or even an owl. Mourning continues and now the seasons move on, life must go on. The chamber feel returns with the piano and percussive interjections.
Bird in the Wind: Presto
References the first movement, is similarly impressionistic but with more rhythmic thrust and effort. The bird now sores, perhaps a swift in a grand migration with the flock. They pass miles of landscape, countryside, towns, even oceans, onwards, ever onwards they fly. Wild improvisations occur as bird calls to bird and the journey is nearly completed. Arrival.