Ųauren Ƽasynczuk ‡ Saxophone ‡

Music Department California Polytechnic State University Ųauren ƽasynczuk saxophone A Senior Recital in Partial Ful!llment of the Requirements for a Bachelor of Arts in Music Susan Azaret Davies, accompanist June 3, 2012 Sunday at 3 p.m Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church Sponsored by the Cal Poly Music Department and College of Liberal Arts Program Lauren Wasynczuk, saxophone Susan Azaret Davies, piano Concerto in D minor ............................. Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747) Andante e spiccato Adagio Presto Ku Ku . Barry Cockcro" (b. 1972) – Intermission – Tableaux de Provence .................................. Paule Maurice (1910-1967) I. Farandole des jeunes !lles IV. Des Alyscamps l’âme soupire V. Le cabridan Fantasia ........................................Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) III. Très animé Program Notes Alessandro Marcello – Concerto in D minor Venetian nobleman Alessandro Marcello practiced music as a dile#ante$a “delighter” in the art$rather than as one who pursued it for a living. Despite his younger brother Benede#o being a more famous composer, Alessandro Marcello inspired many musicians, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Marcello’s most celebrated and beloved composition, Concerto for Oboe and Strings in D minor, is a work that has transitioned well to !t the soprano saxophone. Alessandro was the son of Venetian nobility and showed early signs of musical talent, which he inherited from his mother’s side of the family. He was born in Venice on August 24, 1669, and was buried at the family estate at Paviola, Italy, on June 19, 1747. During his childhood, he played several di%erent instruments, sang, and became interested in composing. As a composer, Alessandro Marcello had a full understanding of the late Venetian Baroque concerto style. In 1740, he published a collection of violin solos and wind concertos entitled La Cetra (for two &utes, oboe, bassoon, strings and continuo). Long before La Cetra, though, Marcello created his Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings, and basso continuo. He wrote it in 1717 for the Arcadian Academy, a group that consisted of weekly gatherings of artist-dile#antes. Marcello’s work later a#racted the a#ention of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made it famous in an embellished transcription for solo harpsichord$but misidenti!ed it by pu#ing it in a collection titled XVI Concerti nach A. Vivaldi. Confusing the situation further, Alessandro Marcello’s works were published under the pseudonym “Eterio Stinfalico” (Marcello’s name in the Arcadian Academy), which is one of the reasons why he wasn’t credited with writing Concerto in D minor until the mid-twentieth century. Instead, Alessandro’s brother, Benede#o, who was dubbed the “Pindar of composers” and the “Michelangelo of music,” was long assumed to be the “Marcello” who had wri#en this concerto. Moreover, few copyright laws existed in the eighteenth century, so sometimes composers claimed authorship of works they had not wri#en, or famous composers were a#ached to inauthentic works. Marcello’s Concerto in D minor closely resembles the type of concerto we know from the standard concert repertoire. It is scored for a single solo instrument (the oboe), accompanied by an orchestra. In this performance, the soprano saxophone replaces the oboe and the piano substitutes for the orchestra. Like most three- movement concertos, the framework of Marcello’s Concerto in D minor is structured with fast outer movements surrounding a slow “cantabile” (lyrical) central movement. 'e !rst movement suggests a grand mood because of its moderately fast tempo and stately thematic material, which is presented by the soprano saxophone. As the movement progresses, the theme is varied, creating more direction and interest. 'e somber mood of the second movement aspires to genuine pathos and is the best-known movement from Marcello’s Concerto. 'e piano opens the solemn movement by performing so" and delicate eighth notes. 'e soprano saxophone’s slow tempo during the opening ascending melodic line illustrates grief and nostalgia. Furthermore, the movement incorporates musical embellishments and rubato (making the established pulse &exible by accelerating and slowing down the tempo), which emphasize the yearning melody. Bringing the work to a conclusion is a virtuosic and spirited gigue (a quick and lively dance), which features an engaging interplay between the soprano saxophone and piano. 'e soloist introduces the cheerful movement with bouncy and light rhythms; the piano answers in a similar fashion. Both the soprano saxophone and piano perform a call-and-response throughout the movement, and at the end of the Concerto, a slight slowing of the tempo brings the work to a glorious conclusion. Barry Cockcro! – Ku Ku 'e word Ku Ku can mean “chicken” in Swahili, “crazy,” and a type of clock made in the Black Forest$and all of these interpretations can relate to Barry Cockcro"’s Ku Ku because the work is designed to transport the listener to a chicken coop inhabited by a schizophrenic chicken. Born in 1972, Barry Cockcro" is a notable Australian saxophonist who is sponsored by Selmer and RICO International. Cockcro" studied music in Australia for !ve years and in Bordeaux, France, for two years. He currently teaches at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts. Cockcro" has traveled to a myriad of countries and has been featured in international festivals as a soloist in both chamber and large ensemble se#ings. Cockcro" o"en collaborates with his friend and pianist, Adam Pinto, in a duo called Rompduo. 'ey are best known in Australia, but have undertaken many international tours. In addition to being a highly acclaimed saxophonist, Barry Cockcro" is naturally gi"ed as a composer. Cockcro"’s fresh and innovative compositions have helped increase the repertoire for the saxophone. He has over 140 published works, all of which are available from Reed Music. While in France, one of the last pieces Cockcro" performed was Sequenza VIIb for soprano saxophone by Luciano Berio, a work that incorporates challenging multiphonics (a virtuosic way of producing multiple notes simultaneously). A friend of Cockcro" commented that Cockcro" sounded like a chicken when he heard Cockcro" experimenting with these multiphonics. 'is image led Cockcro" to expand on his friend’s idea; he added a multiphonic section to Ku Ku, combining it with funky beat- box-type rhythms. Like Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIIb, Ku Ku utilizes non-traditional sounds and techniques, so listeners need to bring willing ears and an open mind. In describing Ku Ku, Cockcro" says, “'ere are happy hens, ones that live on an organic farm, that have worms to eat and lay lots of eggs. 'e air is fresh and the handsome rooster caters for all their needs. 'ere are other kinds of chickens, ones that may have lost their mind, or their head! Each day they do the same thing, they live in li#le boxes, cluck, cluck . cluck, cluck.” Ku Ku begins delicately with an ascending lyrical line. One can imagine a rising sun greeting the chicken. Short musical ideas are repeated, with slight rhythmic and melodic variation. 'e beginning of each short musical idea presents two stressed eighth notes that create a “ticking” sound and the overall contour of each phrase is like a pendulum swinging back and forth on a cuckoo clock. As the piece builds in momentum, the chicken starts to lose its head, which is illustrated by slap-tonguing and multiphonics. By the end of the work, so" slap-tonguing illustrates the chicken ‘fading away,’ but a humorous ending is in store. Paule Maurice – Tableaux de Provence Who doesn’t like receiving a postcard from a friend or loved one? French female composer and respected educator Paule Maurice composed Tableaux de Provence as her “postcard.” 'e piece consists of a series of musical portraits that depict picturesque scenes and capture the spirit of her homeland Provence, a region in southern France. Before Maurice’s lifetime, female composers seldom had success when entering the traditionally male !eld of art music. Maurice was a rare and brave woman who broke the norm. Born in Paris on September 29, 1910, Maurice studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she won !rst prize in composition and harmony. Not only was she skilled as a composer, but she also was appointed Professor of Sight-Reading at the Paris Conservatoire. Maurice taught many well-known composers and conductors, some of whom won the coveted Prix de Rome and a"er their studies also became professors themselves. Two years before her death in Paris on August 18, 1967, Maurice was appointed as Professor of Analysis and Harmony at L’École Normale de Musique. Although she only wrote a few works, Paule Maurice was an active composer who achieved national recognition for her outstanding compositions. Her most famous piece for saxophone is Tableaux de Provence. It was wri#en for alto saxophone and orchestra, but another version exists for alto saxophone and a reduction for piano, which is the version most o"en played by saxophonists. 'e work was composed during 1954–9 and was dedicated to saxophone virtuoso Marcel Mule, whom many call the “Father of Classical Saxophone.” Its premiere was given on December 9, 1958, by French saxophone virtuoso Jean-Marie Londeix and the Orchestre Symphonique Brestois, directed by Pierre Lantier, Maurice’s husband. Tableaux de Provence, a suite consisting of !ve impressionistic movements, employs idiomatic characteristics of the saxophone to convey the imagery of the !ve movements, three of which will be performed today. Movement I “Farandole des jeunes !lles” (Farandole [Dance] of the Young Girls) is a lively and brisk movement. 'e farandole is a national dance of Provence in which large groups of people join hands and make their way through the village streets in a line; at times, a circle or a spiral is formed.

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