Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2012 High Register Excerpts of Selected Alto Saxophone Concerti: A Critical Anthology Adam D. Muller
Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
HIGH REGISTER EXCERPTS OF SELECTED ALTO SAXOPHONE CONCERTI:
A CRITICAL ANTHOLOGY
By
ADAM D. MULLER
A treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music
Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2012
Copyright © 2012 Adam D. Muller All Rights Reserved
Adam Muller defended this treatise on 18 May 2012.
The members of the supervisory committee were:
Patrick Meighan Professor Directing Treatise
Seth Beckman University Representative
Eric Ohlsson Committee Member
John Parks Committee Member
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements.
ii
To my wife, Raquel. Your friendship and love have allowed me to see this project through to completion.
iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was made possible by the commitment and time of many individuals: Patrick Meighan for his unwavering enthusiasm for the saxophone and his students, Carina Raschèr for her extraordinary generosity and trust given to me in granting access to Sigurd Raschèr’s archives, Barbara Korn for her humor and wit, Jessica Marisol for providing access to the Frank Erickson Archives at Old Dominion University, and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band for supporting my professional artistic and academic endeavors while on active military duty. Great thanks to Patrick Meighan, Eric Ohlsson, John Parks, and Seth Beckman for serving on my committee, and Lauren Smith and Meghan McCaskill for their assistance while I lived thousands of miles away from The Florida State University College of Music. I also extend profound gratitude to friends and family who have assisted along the way; this project would not have been possible without them: João Paulo Figueirôa and Eurídice Alvarez for their encouragement, Jordan Siverd for his attention to detail, the Kelly Quartet for its pursuit of musical excellence, my parents Douglas and Dianne and brother Noah for their love and patience during many late nights of practice, Patti McKinney for her unwavering support, Meggan Muller for her impeccable translation skills, and my wife Raquel and daughter Juliana for their love of music and life.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ………………………………………………………vi
LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………….viii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………..ix
INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………..1
EDITORIAL NOTES……………………………………………………………………..9
CHAPTER 1 : LARSSON, LARS-ERIK (1934) ……………..………………………...10
CHAPTER 2 : IBERT, JACQUES (1935) ……………………………………………...18
CHAPTER 3 : MARTIN, FRANK (1938) ……………………………………………...25
CHAPTER 4 : BRANT, HENRY (1942) ……………………………………………….30
CHAPTER 5 : WIRTH, CARL ANTON (1956) ………………………………………..35
CHAPTER 6 : DAHL, INGOLF (1957/1959)……….……………………………...…...46
CHAPTER 7 : KOCH, ERLAND VON (1958) …………………………………...... 53
CHAPTER 8 : ERICKSON, FRANK (1959) …………………………………………...59
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..67
APPENDIX A : PEDAGOGICAL RESOURCES FOR HIGH REGISTER STUDY…..69
APPENDIX B : ADDITIONAL RESOURCES……………………...………………….70
APPENDIX C : SCORES RELATED TO PROJECT VIA EXCLUSION……………...71
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………….72
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ……………………………………………………………76
v LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Example 1.1. Lars-Erik Larsson, Konsert, Movement 1, mm. 70-80…………………...13
Example 1.2. Larsson, Movement 1, mm. 113-120…………………………………..…13
Example 1.3. Larsson, Movement 1, mm.121-129……………………………………...14
Example 1.4. Larsson, Movement 1, mm.144-156……………………………………...14
Example 1.5. Larsson, Movement 1, cadenza…………………………………………..15
Example 1.6. Larsson, Movement 2, mm. 31-38………………………………………..15
Example 1.7. Larsson, Movement 2, mm. 81-85………………………………………..16
Example 1.8. Larsson, Movement 3, mm. 65-70………………………………………..16
Example 1.9. Larsson, Movement 3, cadenza…………………………………………..17
Example 2.1. Jacques Ibert, Concertino da Camera, Movement 1, mm. 49-52………...22
Example 2.2. Ibert, Movement 1, mm. 114-119………………………………………...23
Example 2.3. Ibert, Movement 2, mm. 24-32…………………………………………...23
Example 2.4. Ibert, Movement 3, cadenza………………………………………………24
Example 3.1. Frank Martin, Ballade, mm. 46-53……………………………………….28
Example 3.2. Martin, mm. 364-373……………………………………………………..28
Example 3.3. Martin, mm. 385-391……………………………………………………..29
Example 4.1. Henry Brant, Concerto, Movement 1, mm. 233-238……………………..33
Example 4.2. Brant, Movement 3, mm. 148-164………………………………………..34
Example 4.3. Brant, Movement 3, mm. 383-390………………………………………..34
Example 5.1. Carl Anton Wirth, Concerto, Movement 1, mm. 11-17………………….41
Example 5.2. Wirth, Movement 1, mm. 92-97………………………………………….41
vi Example 5.3. Wirth, Movement 1, mm. 105-119……………………………………….42
Example 5.4. Wirth, Movement 1, mm. 153-157……………………………………….42
Example 5.5. Wirth, Movement 1, mm. 169-173……………………………………….43
Example 5.6. Wirth, Movement 1, mm. 177-187……………………………………….43
Example 5.7. Wirth, Movement 2, mm. 194-197……………………………………….44
Example 5.8. Wirth, Movement 3, mm. 194-198……………………………………….45
Example 5.9. Wirth, Movement 3, mm. 273-288……………………………………….45
Example 6.1. Ingolf Dahl, Concerto, Movement 2, mm. 13-16………………………...50
Example 6.2. Dahl, Movement 2, mm. 39-46…………………………………………...51
Example 6.3. Dahl, Movement 2, mm. 54-60…………………………………………...52
Example 6.4. Dahl, Movement 3, cadenza……………………………………………...52
Example 7.1. Erland von Koch, Concerto, Movement 1, mm. 123-128………………..54
Example 7.2. Koch, Movement 1, mm. 209-216………………………………………..55
Example 7.3. Koch, Movement 1, cadenza……………………………………………..55
Example 7.4. Koch, Movement 1, cadenza……………………………………………..56
Example 7.5. Koch, Movement 2, mm. 56-62…………………………………………..57
Example 7.6. Koch, Movement 3, mm. 29-32…………………………………………..57
Example 7.7. Koch, Movement 3, mm. 138-142………………………………………..57
Example 7.8. Koch, Movement 3, mm. 197-207………………………………………..58
Example 8.1. Frank Erickson, Concerto, mm. 118-122……………….………………..65
Example 8.2. Erickson, mm. 266-273…………………………………………………...65
Example 8.3. Erickson, mm. 298-305………….…...…………….……………..………66
Example 8.4. Erickson, cadenza, mm. 356-357…………………………………………66 vii LIST OF FIGURES (“RA” denotes a source located in the Raschèr Archives)
Figure 0.1. Sigurd Raschèr, unpublished four-octave fingering chart, RA…………...….2
Figure 0.2. Raschèr, published four-octave fingering chart, Top-Tones, p. 19…...... 3
Figure 0.3. Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, cover page, RA…………………….4
Figure 0.4. Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, page 1, RA…………………………5
Figure 0.5. Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, page 2, RA…………………………6
Figure 1.1. Lars-Erik Larsson, undated photo, RA……………………………………...10
Figure 1.2. Larsson, Konsert world premiere advertisement, RA………………….…...12
Figure 2.1. Jacques Ibert, undated photo, RA………………...... 18
Figure 2.2. Ibert, Concertino world premiere program (first movement only), RA…….20
Figure 2.3. Ibert, Concertino world premiere program (complete work), RA……...... 21
Figure 3.1. Frank Martin, undated photo, RA…………………………………………...25
Figure 4.1. Henry Brant, undated photo, American Music…20th Century, Gann, p. 97...30
Figure 5.1. Carl Anton Wirth, undated photo, RA………………………………...... 35
Figure 5.2. Wirth, Rochester Times-Union newspaper clipping, RA…………………...37
Figure 5.3. Wirth, Chattanooga News-Free Press newspaper clipping, RA…………….39
Figure 5.4. Wirth, Idlewood Concerto world premiere program, RA…………………..40
Figure 6.1. Ingolf Dahl, undated photo, AllMusic Guide………..……………………...46
Figure 6.2. Ingolf Dahl, Concerto world premiere program, RA……………………….47
Figure 7.1. Erland von Koch, photo from Nordic Sounds, RA………………………….53
Figure 8.1. Frank Erickson, undated photo, Frank Erickson Papers…………………….59
viii ABSTRACT
Saxophonists aspiring to perform significant classical repertoire will quickly discover the challenges of high register passages in the third and fourth registers. Many of the early saxophone concerti, namely those composed between 1930-1960, are the foundation of the saxophone’s solo repertoire, and have guided composers and performers alike to explore the capabilities of the instrument in this regard.1 All saxophonists face the great task of representing these works with the artistic integrity their composers intended and can therefore benefit from an anthology that contains selected high register passages in their correct context, unaltered by unorthodox performance practice, subjective reasoning, or publication error. This treatise examines high register passages from the alto saxophone concerti of Lars-Erik Larsson, Jacques Ibert, Frank Martin, Henry Brant, Carl Anton Wirth, Ingolf Dahl, Erland von Koch, and Frank Erickson. Historical and analytical facts regarding each composer and work are given, and the included concerti are taken from the most current published editions available.
1There are a number of works for saxophone written prior to or during this period, including pieces by Bumcke, d’Indy, Schmitt, and Debussy, but none that took full advantage of the saxophone’s technical and musical potential. It was only after Raschèr demonstrated the saxophone’s four-octave range to composers that the instrument’s high register capabilities were employed in classical saxophone literature. ix INTRODUCTION
In the early 1930’s, composers began to ask for a four-octave range from the saxophone in response to the development of the upper register by classical saxophonist Sigurd M. Raschèr. Many have written about Raschèr and his contributions to music and the saxophone. Carl Anton Wirth, one of Raschèr’s close friends, offered a touching personal account of the saxophonist in 1958:
For over twenty years the greatest saxophone virtuoso in the entire world has been playing and teaching in the United States. Most of the serious saxophone literature now in existence was inspired by and written for him. It is acknowledged that he has done more to bring about an understanding of the true nature and beauty of the instrument than any other person or persons. His name certainly is known to you, as it is known and honored by everyone seriously concerned with music in America: Sigurd Raschèr, the man the French performers Mr. Jennings refers to all have to acknowledge as the maestro.
Mr. Raschèr has been tireless in his efforts to bring about a better understanding of the saxophone, giving freely and unstintingly of himself in clinics and seminars in colleges, universities, high schools, conferences, and music conventions throughout the land.
He has been soloist with the great orchestras here and abroad and those who have once heard this great artist can never forget him.2
Although Raschèr was not the first to develop the high register—specifically any tones produced above the instrument’s written F3 (also referred to in this volume as “Top F”)—he was certainly the most influential performer to solidify its use within art music and the sole performer to expand the range to a full four octaves by 1933 (Fig. 1).3 This
2Wirth’s letter was sent to editor Leo Cluesmann at the International Musician, regarding the article “Saxophone Sense” published in the September 1958 issue. Vance Jennings, the author, discussed the “limited opportunity” American saxophonists had to hear excellent saxophone playing, and inexplicably made no mention of Raschèr or his contributions to music and the saxophone. Raschèr, who had been living in the United States since the 1930’s, was the sole performer responsible for inspiring the creation of the staples of the saxophone’s concert literature.
3Pitch notation in this treatise is referenced specifically to the saxophone. See “Harmonics Obtainable on Low Bb” listed at the bottom of Figure 0.4. The pitch in measure 1, B-flat, is the lowest 1 treatise presents selected high register excerpts from alto saxophone concerti written between 1930 and 1960, examining passages that are foundational to the saxophone’s high register use in classical music. Each of the included works was specifically written for and dedicated to Raschèr.
Figure 0.1 : Sigurd Raschèr, unpublished four-octave fingering chart.
written pitch produced on the alto saxophone, and is therefore called Bb1. An octave above this pitch is Bb2 in measure 2, and corresponding pitches (B2, C2, C#2, etc.) will follow the same system. In measure 6, the reader can observe a written F3, also referred to as “Top F”. 2 Many composers have been inspired to include what Raschèr considered the “Top-Tones” of the saxophone in their compositions. Even Adolphe Sax, the instrument’s inventor, knew these tones existed, and Georges Kastner (1810-1867) notated that the saxophone’s range was at least three octaves in the first published saxophone method book in 1844.4 In the early 1930’s, Raschèr was the only concert saxophonist executing the third and fourth registers. Daily studies helped him achieve this, and informed saxophonists worldwide soon started to adopt his ideas into their own practice habits after his first publication of Harmonics on the Saxophone in London, England, 1937.5 This little pamphlet outlined a three and one-half octave range to Top F, and was the precursor to his formal release of Top-Tones for the Saxophone in 1941 that extended the saxophone’s range to a full four octaves.6
Figure 0.2 : Raschèr, published four-octave fingering chart from Top-Tones, p. 19.
4Kenneth N. Deans, “A Comprehensive Performance Project in Saxophone Literature with an Essay Consisting of the Translated Source Readings in the Life and Work of Adolphe Sax” (D.M. thesis, The University of Iowa, 1980), p. 129.
5Sigurd Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone (London: Clifford Essex & Son, Ltd, 1937), pp. 1- 2.
6Sigurd Raschèr, Top-Tones for the Saxophone (New York: Carl Fischer, 1977), p. 19. 3
Figure 0.3 : Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, cover page.
4
Figure 0.4 : Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, page 1.
5
Figure 0.5 : Raschèr, Harmonics on the Saxophone, page 2.
6 Top-Tones for the Saxophone was the culmination of Raschèr’s high register studies, and was an advanced method and supplement to his Complete Scale for All Saxophones. Both were first published in 1941 by Carl Fischer.7 The Complete Scale only outlines the traditional two and one-half octave range to which saxophonists were accustomed, and a short footnote directs readers to Raschèr’s Top-Tones method book. For the first time in history, saxophonists were now able to incorporate a formal method of high register training for four octaves into their daily studies. Beginning in the 1930’s, numerous compositions have been written that require use of the saxophone’s high register. The following volume includes excerpts from alto saxophone concerti dating from 1930 to 1960, and for each composition, entire phrases have been selected so that the musical context of the passages is preserved. The examples provide an anthology that shows the early development of the saxophone’s high register and its use in classical literature. It also constitutes a method book of saxophone literature excerpts. Specific concerti from this period, including works by Edmund von Borck, Alexandre Glazounov, and P.M. Dubois, are omitted from this project for various reasons. Some of the excluded works make minimal or infrequent use of the high register (single or few tones versus actual passages within the third and fourth octaves). In addition, some are omitted because they have never been published or are currently out of print and unavailable; others are absent due to the composers’ revisions that eliminated high register passages from authorized published versions. Some examples of concerti (or specific versions of the concerti) omitted from this project include works by the following composers:
Benson, Warren - single/few tones used throughout. Borck, Edmund von - single high register tone. Dahl, Ingolf - unpublished/unauthorized 1st version, Raschèr Archives. Glazounov, Alexandre - single/few tones used throughout. Korn, Peter Jona - unpublished/unauthorized 1st version, Edition Korn, Munich.
7Sigurd M. Raschèr, Complete Scale for All Saxophones (New York: Carl Fischer, 1941), p. 1. 7 The breadth of resources and literature that utilize the saxophone’s high register has greatly increased since the early 1930’s.8 This is due to Raschèr’s extension of the saxophone’s range and the development of saxophone pedagogy. These factors allowed composers to explore the full expressive capabilities of the instrument as envisioned by its inventor. Major concerti included in this project include compositions by Jacques Ibert, Frank Martin, Lars-Erik Larsson, Henry Brant and Ingolf Dahl, among others. Additional instruction for developing the saxophone’s range can be found in various study materials and method books including publications by Sigurd Raschèr and others. Each give individual perspectives on internal pitch perception, overtone exercises, fingerings, and tone imagination—all essential elements one must absorb and practice diligently in order to develop the saxophone’s high register. Publication information for these sources can be found in Appendix A.
8The sources referenced here are located in appendices A and B. The author has listed several selections in these appendices that appear most relevant to this project and the topics discussed within. 8 EDITORIAL NOTES
Pitches throughout the entire document will be referred to as “written”, or sounding in E-flat. This will aid the reader while viewing examples and excerpts from the E-flat alto saxophone concerti solo parts. Many pictures, photographs, and letters discussed in this treatise remain unpublished and have come from Sigurd Raschèr’s personal library, which was formerly located at his home in Shushan, New York. The author will refer to this library of resources as the Raschèr Archives. Beginning in 2006, Raschèr’s personal library was relocated to the State University of New York at Fredonia, where it can now be accessed as the Sigurd Raschèr Collection, Daniel A. Reed Library, Archives and Special Collections. Some works have histories of significant revision and adaptation, and it is the goal of this document to present the most accurate versions available from current publishing houses. Only current publications and authorized versions of concerti scores are used in this project.9 Additionally, all concerti composed during the period of 1930-1960 are listed (without significant background and analysis of the works or composers) in Jean-Marie Londeix’s definitive source for saxophone literature, A Comprehensive Guide to the Saxophone Repertoire, listed in Appendix B.10
9The published editions of the Wirth and Erickson concerti are the composers’ final handwritten manuscripts.
10Ibid. 9 CHAPTER 1 LARS-ERIK LARSSON (1934)
Figure 1.1 : Lars-Erik Larsson, undated photo.
Background Among Swedish composers of the twentieth century, Lars-Erik Larsson (1908- 1986) was the most well known and highly performed, enjoying the musical support and love of his native people.11 Like Alban Berg (1885-1935), one of his primary teachers, Larsson possessed the craftsmanship to compose within the frameworks of serialism and atonality. Larsson was also interested in Arnold Schoenberg’s (1874-1951) twelve-tone techniques, and was the first composer to employ dodecaphonic writing in Sweden, as can be heard in his 10 tvåstämmiga pianostycken (1932). However, he continually returned to composing melodically-oriented material throughout his career, creating works of Nordic Romanticism.12
11Anders Olof Lundegård, Anders Lundegård, Classical Saxophonist [Web site], “Background and Emergence of the Swedish Saxophone Concerto - Lars-Erik Larsson, Op. 14,” D.M. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995, Site address: http://www.classicalsaxophonist.com/Larssonbio.htm
10 I want to write beautiful music. I want to give people a chance to listen to music in the old fashioned way. That does not mean that music cannot be complicated, but complicated compositional procedures should not be of the nature which might bother the listener.13
His studies with Berg occurred from 1929-1930 in Vienna, after his conducting lessons from Olallo Morales (1874-1957) and compositional instruction from Ernst Henrik Ellberg (1868-1948) at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to positions with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and Royal Opera in Stockholm, he later served as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden (1947-1959) and Director of Music at Uppsala University (1961-1965). 14 Composed and premiered in 1934, within a year of the concertos by Ibert and Glazounov, Larsson’s Konsert is the first saxophone concerto to require a three and one- half octave range. The work has established a strong musical reputation over the past few decades and is now recognized as one of the most beautifully crafted and inspired works in the saxophone repertoire. The concerto was a result of the composer meeting Sigurd Raschèr at an International Society of Contemporary Music conference in 1934. After a performance of Larsson’s Sinfonietta (1932) in Florence, Italy, the two men were introduced at a social gathering that mingled late into the night. According to music critic Sten Broman, it was during this occasion that Raschèr made an impression on Larsson with his strong personality:
Most restaurants were just about to close down, but a few nightclubs were still crowded. While most of us enjoyed the taste of various Italian wines, Raschèr restricted himself, as usual, to non-alcoholic juices, chewing on old and dry pieces of bread in order to exercise his embouchure. He got very upset if anyone happened to leave out the "M.", his middle initial, when addressing him. He was
12Göran Bergendal, Grove Music Online [Web site], “Larsson, Lars-Erik” (7 May 2007), Site address: http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu
13Lundegård, Site address: http://www.classicalsaxophonist.com/Larssonbio.htm
14Nicolas Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (New York: Schirmer Books, 1978) p. 974. 11 otherwise in a humorous mood, putting himself in the center of attention by frequently joking and laughing...15
Figure 1.2 : Larsson, Konsert world premiere advertisement.
Larsson uses the saxophone’s high register in a variety of ways, demanding musical and technical flexibility within extended melodic and harmonic passages and motives above Top F. Raschèr’s demonstration of the instrument’s four-octave range defined the way future high register passages would be composed, and the Konsert is the first saxophone concerto to demand an E#4 (a complete octave above Top F). The idiomatic writing trends that Raschèr and Larsson established in the Konsert are significant; these will be found throughout the additional works discussed in this project.16
15Lundegård, Site address: http://www.classicalsaxophonist.com/earlyconcertoforms.htm#soloist
12 Analysis
The first occurrence of high register writing is of an ascending octave leap from B3 to B4 in measure 76, followed by a descending B-natural harmonic minor scale to B1 in measure 80. The passage is colored by a semitone outline of the fifth and root of the scale in measures 78 and 79.
Example 1.1 : Konsert för Saxofon och Stråkorkester, Op. 14, Movement 1, mm. 70-80.
Larsson again utilizes a B4 in measure 115, preceded by eighth note triplet figures that incorporate the semitone outline described in Example 1.1. This process repeats in measure 118 to 119, leading to another B4. The semitone outline and triplet motive seen throughout Example 1.2 will return in future examples of the Konsert, and are musical devices frequently employed by Larsson throughout Movement 1 that precede high register pitches.
Example 1.2 : Ibid., Movement 1, mm. 113-120.
16Along with demonstrating the saxophone’s four-octave range to composers, Raschèr also urged them to write “with bravura!” and ignore any accepted technical limitations they may have assumed about the saxophone (see correspondence from Sigurd Raschèr to Frank Erickson, citation 75). 13 The next passage in Example 1.3 outlines an ascending scale beginning on D#3 in measure 124, and is preceded by Larsson’s triplet motive in measure 123. The scale ascends to E#4 in measure 127, leaps downward by a perfect fourth to C3 in measure 128, and then proceeds with a descending triplet motive as previously outlined.
Example 1.3 : Ibid., Movement 1, mm. 121-129.
In Example 1.4, Larsson continues with another ascending scale passage in measure 42 that is also preceded by the triplet motive in measure 41. The passage includes a leap of a descending major sixth in measures 150 and 151, from E#4 to G#3. It proceeds with the semitone motive from Example 1.1, but now expands the note value to half notes instead of eighths in measures 152-154.
Example 1.4 : Ibid., Movement 1, mm. 144-156.
14 Example 1.5 displays the final use of high register writing in the first movement, with another ascending scale beginning on A#3. Instead of the eighth note triplets Larsson employs in earlier examples, he precedes the A-sharp with eighth/sixteenth note figures beginning in the first bar of the cadenza. Like Examples 1.3 and 1.4, the pitch reached at the top of the scale is E#4, the highest pitch Larsson demands of the saxophone throughout his concerto.
Example 1.5 : Ibid., Movement 1, cadenza.
In Example 1.6, Larsson favors ascending/descending scale movement, seen in measures 31-38. He completes these ideas with a descending octave leap from F#3 to F#2 in measure 38.
Example 1.6 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 31-38.
Larsson’s preference of the ascending scale appears once again in measures 82- 84. Instead of preceding the high register passage with semitone or triplet motives in measures 80 and 81, he uses thirty-second notes in a trill-like fashion. The descending
15 octave leap from E4 to E3 in measure 84 is used as a motive for the remainder of Example 1.7.
Example 1.7 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 81-85.
Like Example 1.7, 1.8 does not utilize the triplet or semitone motives to arrive at high register pitches. Instead of thirty-second notes, sixteenth notes are used in measures 65 and 66, outlining B-natural and B-flat diminished chords. A semitone motive does occur, however, in measures 67-71.
Example 1.8 : Ibid., Movement 3, mm. 65-70.
In the final example, Larsson precedes another passage with diminished chords beginning in measure 2 of the cadenza. The chords ascend chromatically, and then a quarter note scale follows ending on B4 three measures from the end of the example.
16
Example 1.9 : Ibid., Movement 3, cadenza.
17 CHAPTER 2 JACQUES IBERT (1935)
Figure 2.1 : Jacques Ibert, undated photo.
Background As a youth, Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) was denied musical training by his father, and was forced to secretly apply himself to piano lessons until he was twenty-one years old.17 He eventually persuaded his father to allow him to study at the Paris Conservatory, and was a student of Gédalge and Fauré from 1911-1914. He left his studies and served in the French Navy and French Naval Reserve during World War I, and returned to study music with Paul Vidal after the Armistice.18
17David Ewen, The Complete Book of Twentieth Century Music (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959), p. 187.
18Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 793. 18 Ibert was considered an established composer after his 1922 orchestral composition Escales.19 He held important positions throughout his career, serving as the first musician-director at the Académie de France of Rome (1937), assistant director of the Paris Opéra, and faculty member at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. He would eventually return to Paris in the 1950s, serving as joint director for Paris Opéra and Opéra Comique. The inspiration for the Concertino was a saxophone demonstration that Raschèr gave to Ibert in Paris, but the catalyst for their meeting was a French vocalist, Marya Freund. After hearing one of Raschèr’s performances in the summer of 1933, Freund was impressed with his playing and suggested that she introduce Raschèr to Parisian composers so he could inspire them to write new works for the saxophone; the meeting with Ibert soon followed.20 Though Ibert had previously composed for the saxophone in opera, ballet, film scores, and orchestral works, he had never heard the instrument’s range developed to four octaves, and admired the artistry that Raschèr demonstrated during their time together. The composer was quite pleased and eager to write something for the talented saxophonist.21 The first movement of the Concertino was premiered in Paris on 2 May 1935, and received great praise from a music critic in La Revue Musicale:
Treated as a solo instrument, the saxophone has just received a brilliant consecration, thanks to Jacques Ibert, who entrusted to this supple, powerful, by turns brilliant and nostalgic instrument a dazzling Concerto, of transcendental difficulty, of ingenious writing, and of a seductiveness which sparked real enthusiasm.
The soloist, Mr. Sigurd Raschèr, without having the purity, the softness, the perfect distinction of sonority of our great French saxophonists, has, in exchange, incredible agility, variety of sound, and range. The author [Ibert] has in fact written a version of his work specially adapted to the unbelievable technical possibilities of its performer.22
19Ewen, The Complete Book of Twentieth Century Music, p. 188.
20William Stuart Graves, “An Historical Investigation of and Performance Guide for Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera” (D.M.A. treatise, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998), p. 40.
21Ibid., p. 41.
22Ibid., pp. 43-44. 19
Figure 2.2 : Ibert, Concertino world premiere program (Allegro movement only).
The work was completed by Ibert and given an official world premiere in
Winterthur, Switzerland on 11 December 1935.
20
Figure 2.3 : Ibert, Concertino world premiere program (complete work).
21 Although some saxophonists argue that Ibert’s Concertino is jazz-inspired and should be interpreted as such, they are likely led astray by Ibert’s use of impressionistic musical elements and frequent use of syncopation in this particular work. It is established that Ibert’s musical style reflects a blend of impressionism and neoclassicism:
It must be recalled that both Debussy and Ravel, the creators of a style that has acquired the indelible label of impressionism, also wrote music in classical forms. Their brilliant and expressive stylizations became a model for neoclassical French music, tinged to a greater or a lesser degree with impressionistic colors. The music of Jacques Ibert exemplifies a blend of impressionistic and neoclassical techniques in a most effective manner.23
Like Larsson’s Konzert, Ibert’s work stands as a landmark for the saxophone repertoire’s initial high register demands, dating back to 1935. Ibert—like all composers in this anthology—was inspired by Raschèr’s execution and development of the instrument’s range. At this point in his career, Raschèr had extended the range to four octaves as reflected in his fingering chart. This made it possible for Ibert to use the “top- tone” F-natural in the third movement’s cadenza just as Larsson did enharmonically with E-sharp in the first movement of the Konsert.
Analysis Example 2.1 includes an ascending sixteenth note scale from B2 (m. 49) to A3 (m. 52). The scale’s overall quality is A major, but Ibert does use chromaticism to add color and variety during the ascent to A-natural in measure 52.
Example 2.1 : Concertino da Camera by Jacques Ibert, Movement 1, mm. 49-52.
23David Ewen, The New Book of Modern Composers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), p. 36. 22 Example 2.2 displays three and one-half octaves in an ascending scale in measures 114-119. After an ascending sixteenth note passage from A#1 in measure 114, the passage arrives at D3 in measure 116. An ascending E major/dominant seventh chord follows in measures 118-119, including the major sixth (C-sharp) and flat ninth (F- natural). Like Larsson, Ibert uses quicker figures to arrive at high register pitches, then increases note values once the passage begins to develop above Top F. The passage ends in measure 119, and Ibert proceeds with sixteenth note runs written for the saxophone’s lower and middle registers.
Example 2.2 : Ibid., Movement 1, mm. 114-119.
The second movement provides the first extended melodic high register passage in Example 2.3, and showcases the instrument’s lyrical capabilities with stepwise/leapwise motion. The passage is a simple outline of the D-major scale, beginning on F#3 in measure 24.
Example 2.3 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 24-32.
The third movement contains a cadenza (Ex. 2.4). There are two options contained in the score, with the composer’s original preference in larger print containing
23 high register writing up to an F4.24 After repeated thirty-second note triplets descend to B1, an ascending thirty-second note run from B1 to F4 occurs. Like Example 2.2, Ibert increases note value and slows motion into the high register. Here the passage switches from thirty-second notes to eighth notes.
Example 2.4 : Ibid., Movement 3, cadenza.
24Raschèr and other saxophonists perform tones higher than the F4 in their performances and recordings, ranging from a minor third higher (G#4) to a tritone higher (B5). The ad lib. passage in smaller print was added by Ibert to make the work more accessible to other performers who did not have the high register facility Raschèr had established. Please refer to Appendix B for additional information. 24 CHAPTER 3 FRANK MARTIN (1938)
Figure 3.1 : Frank Martin, undated photo.
Background Frank Martin (1890-1974) was gifted in the areas of mathematics and physics, but left these formal studies to pursue his love of music. In his youth, Martin was greatly inspired by the music of Franck, Strauss, and Mahler. Schoenberg’s music was also of interest to him, yet he never departed from writing tonal music.25 Martin received eight years of private lessons from 1906-1914 with Joseph Lauber (1864-1952), a former student of Louis Diémer (1843-1919) and Jules Massenet (1842-1912).26 Additional musical interests took him away from Switzerland to Rome (1921-1923) and then to Paris (1923-1925). Martin also studied and performed with a trio at the Jaques-Dalcroze
25Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 1098.
26Ibid., p. 978. 25 Institute, where his focus was on the music of Bach and Debussy.27 He eventually relocated to the Netherlands and served as a professor at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik from 1950 to 1957.28 Martin was an accomplished harpsichordist and pianist, and already a well- respected composer in Switzerland by the 1930’s. He began composing his Ballade in Geneva in 1938, assisted by Raschèr through exchange of letters and musical examples to verify what was technically possible as well as idiomatic for the saxophone.29 A brief excerpt from a letter to a public radio broadcasting station in Geneva sheds a little more light on the inspiration for this piece:
It had already been several years that I had known Sigurd Raschèr and had admired without reservation his musicality and extraordinary mastery of the instrument that he chose for himself, the saxophone, when last year he came to play Debussy’s Rhapsodie and Ibert’s Concertino at one of our subscription concerts. After the concert, while I was introducing him to our fondue nationale, he so kindly asked me to write something for his “pipe”, a temptation that I couldn’t resist.30
Martin’s work for saxophone is the first in a series of six ballades that he composed for an assortment of instruments, including trombone and flute. Though he was highly regarded as a composer in Europe after 1919, his saxophone Ballade was his first major work performed in the United States in 1939 on a concert promoting Swiss music. It was several years later that his reputation was finally considered international, with the premiere of his Petite symphonie concertante for harp, harpsichord, piano, and
27William W. Austin, Music in the 20th Century: from Debussy through Stravinsky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966), p. 497.
28Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 978.
29Frank Martin, Geneva, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 1938, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
30Frank Martin, Geneva, to Radio Suisse Romande, Geneva, 30 January 1939, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY. 26 two string orchestras (1945).31 An excerpt from Austin’s Music in the 20th Century clarifies Martin’s late musical recognition:
Frank Martin (b. 1890) emerged as an international figure only at the age of fifty- five (1945) with his Petite symphonie concertante for harp, harpsichord, piano, and double orchestra. He was now a more original composer than his Swiss compatriots Schoek, Honegger, Bloch, and Burkhard. The predominance of chromaticism in his melodies, the occasional appearance of twelve-tone themes and ostinato patterns, together with the distinctive free forms, the fresh sonorities, the splendidly idiomatic writing for voices and all sorts of instruments, and the consistent mellow expressiveness of his music won for a moment the attention of many adventurous young composers, including Roman Vlad and Karlheintz Stockhausen. But they did not learn his patience. The adventures of the young carried them past Martin before his work had time to reach an audience as wide as Berg’s or Bartok’s. And without the help of fashion his later works, continually more refined and powerful up through the Christmas oratorio, Le Mystère de la nativitié (1960), would need many years to win the popularity they deserved. But just as Martin had worked patiently in obscurity until he was past fifty, so he could be patient with the perfunctory recognition granted him in his seventies.32
Analysis The examples from the Ballade display a recurring musical framework between pitches, including chromaticism, repetition of individual tones, and leaps of thirds. Example 3.1 begins with a semitone motive, a descending half step from Ab3 to G3 in measure 46. Martin develops the passage by repeating this motive, followed by descending chromatic motion to F#3, then a major third leap to Bb4. These musical ideas repeat themselves and develop throughout the remainder of the example, achieving a climactic arrival at F4 in measure 49. The passage descends chromatically from F4, and eventually incorporates leaps into the semitone movement, beginning with a minor third between B4 and Ab3 in measure 51.
31David Ewen, The Complete Book of Twentieth Century Music (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1959), pp. 228-229.
32Austin, Music in the 20th Century, p. 496. 27
Example 3.1 : Ballade pour saxophone alto by Frank Martin, Movement 1, mm. 46-53.
Martin uses an interchange of repeated tones, stepwise motion, and two minor third leaps to create an ascending melodic line in Example 3.2, consolidating his musical ideas employed in Example 3.1, and solidifying Martin’s use of tonal architecture. Instead of using descending motives or lines to create a climactic moment, he now employs ascending pitches from the beginning of the passage in measure 364. Martin utilizes the chromatic scale in measures 364-366, followed by an arrival point at C4 in measure 368. A minor third leap up to Eb4 occurs, and the passage closes with an F4 in measure 373.
Example 3.2 : Ibid., mm. 364-373.
Example 3.2 displays three octaves and a perfect fifth, from C1 to G4. This is accomplished by rapid, ascending C major/dominant seventh eighth note runs in measures 386 and 387, followed by quarter note quintuplets and dotted quarter notes in 28 measures 387-389. Like Larsson and Ibert, Martin slows the speed of high register passages by adding value to the notes used in the passage once they approach or reach Top F.
Example 3.3 : Ibid., mm. 385-391.
29 CHAPTER 4 HENRY BRANT (1942)
Example 4.1 : Henry Brant, undated photo, American Music, Gann, p. 97.
Background Born in Canada to American parents, Henry Dreyfus Brant (1913-2008) was a well-educated American composer, having studied at the Institute of Musical Art and the Juilliard School of Music.33 Brant’s father, a violinist and professor at McGill University Conservatorium in Montreal, Canada, was his first teacher.34 When he was sixteen years old, Brant and his family moved to New York. To enhance his academic endeavors, he worked privately with Aaron Copland, Wallingford Riegger, and George Anthiel during the 1930s.35 At some point, he also received conducting lessons from Fritz Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s nephew.36 He would later serve on the faculties of Columbia University
33Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 224.
34Ibid., p. 224.
35Noah Harrison Getz, “Henry Brant's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra: History, Analysis and Performance Practice” (D.M. thesis, The Florida State University, 2002), p. 23.
30 (1945-1952), the Juilliard School of Music (1947-1954), and Bennington College in Vermont (1957-1982).37 Brant also served as an arranger for many years, and believed this experience served him well as a composer:
In the early 1930’s a composer with conservatory training who lacked private means had the choice of supporting himself as a teacher, instrumentalist, arranger, or perhaps critic (but certainly not as a ‘serious’ composer!). I went into professional arranging partly with the object of studying the jazz arts and techniques at first hand. It turned out to be much more than that; in the course of fifteen years I have orchestrated almost everything that can be called music, symphonic or popular. This activity afforded me a unique insight into the methods of my American contemporaries. (To risk a new cliché – no composer is a hero to his arranger; the same goes for band leaders and producers.) Then, too, in the course of participating in the creation of so much music not one’s own, a certain professional tolerance and awareness are acquired, a kind of objectivity towards the rest of the world’s music.
Now as to composing: I have done most of it in odds and ends of time in between work as an arranger, or else in rather a hurry to meet deadlines. I feel most at home composing for films, radio scripts, or dramatic situations, : i.e., I am more stimulated by text and actual subject matter than by abstract musical problems such as new distortions of sonata form.
So far I am almost exclusively an instrumental composer. As an arranger I have had to make friends with the orchestral instruments and their problems; thus I think easily and most naturally in terms of the orchestra. My weakness is new orchestral combinations, and in this department I experiment continually. At odd moments I work on a textbook which is to embody the results of my fifteen years of observation and analysis of orchestral resources.38
He was also infatuated with “rare and obscure” wind instruments, including the Chinese oboe, tin whistle, and Moroccan flute. Brant’s playing of these instruments was
36Kyle Gann, American Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), p. 97.
37E. Ruth Anderson, Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1976), p. 51.
38David Ewen, American Composers Today, A Biographical and Critical Guide (New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1949), pp. 41-42. 31 quite advanced – he was able to perform Paganini Caprices for Solo Violin and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on tin whistle.39 Brant’s interest in unorthodox instruments and experimentation with new orchestral combinations (see citation 38, paragraph 3) were ideal qualities for his connection with the saxophone. His inspiration to compose for the instrument came from a performance of Ibert’s Concertino da Camera by Raschèr with the New York Philharmonic. Brant could not believe what he had heard during the performance, exclaiming “That’s not possible is it?” Raschèr responded “Oh, yes.” and gave Brant a demonstration of the four-octave range.”40
Analysis Brant made good use of these high notes in his Concerto. In Example 4.1, Brant utilizes the saxophone’s entire four-octave range, ascending from B1 to Bb5 in measures 233- 238 and descending from Bb5 to Bb1 in measures 238-239. This is accomplished by using sixteenth note runs from B1 in measures 233-236, followed by a group of eighth notes in measures 237 and 238 leading to Bb5. The Bb1 in the final measure creates another four-octave relationship with Bb5 from measure 238. Brant, just as the previous three composers in this treatise, uses greater note values once above Top F to facilitate accurate execution of high register passages.
39Ibid., p. 42.
40Getz, “Henry Brant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone”, p. 34. 32
Example 4.1 : Movement 1, mm. 233-238.
Example 4.2 contains two high register passages, both using ascending eighth note triplets. Here Brant’s compositional style is reminiscent of Larsson’s Konsert, specifically Examples 1.3 and 1.4. Like Larsson, Brant uses a triplet motive to ascend into the saxophone’s third and fourth registers, then adds value to the notes he employs in those registers throughout Example 4.2.
33
Example 4.2 : Movement 3, mm. 148-164.
Measures 386 and 387 in Example 4.3 are strongly related to measures 237 and 238 from Example 4.1. Both examples have high register writing preceded by a bar of ascending eighth notes that reach above Top F. Unlike previous passages that introduce quarter notes in the high register following the eighth notes, Brant substitutes the quarter notes with eighth notes followed by eighth rests.
Example 4.3 : Movement 3, mm. 383-390.
34 CHAPTER 5 CARL ANTON WIRTH (1956)
5.1 : Carl Anton Wirth, undated photo.
Background Carl Anton Wirth (1912-1986) is not as familiar a name as some of the other composers discussed in this treatise, but his high register writing for the saxophone is comparable only to Brant’s – they are the first two composers to utilize the saxophone’s four-octave range.41 Wirth was an American composer who became close friends with Raschèr, and was a prolific writer of saxophone music. A horn player and graduate from the Eastman School of Music, Wirth went on to conduct the Rochester Community Symphony, serve as Chairman of the Composers for the American Symphony Orchestra League (1955-1957), and founded the Twin City Symphonic Society in Michigan and
41Wirth demands an A4, one half-step below the fourth octave Bb5, while Brant requires the Bb5. Both composers, more than any others included in this document, pushed the limits of what was possible to play on the saxophone. Even by today’s saxophone performance standards, these works remain two of the most demanding due to the extreme high register requirements. 35 Central Sierra Arts Society in California. In 1962, he was sponsored by the United States State Department to serve as conductor of the Radio Republik Indonesia Symphony.42 Wirth was known to write “only when he has something to say”, and was not directly interested in becoming a famous composer.43 Saxophonist Dale Wolford described the impact that Raschèr had on Wirth’s view of the saxophone as a serious instrument of classical music:
He [Wirth] told me about the tremendous impact you [Raschèr] had on his attitude toward the saxophone. Because of you he wrote a wonderful body of music for the saxophone.44
The composer and saxophonist met at an American Symphony Orchestra League convention in the 1950s. The two men quickly became friends, and Wirth’s Idlewood Concerto (1956) was soon underway.45 It would be the first of many pieces Wirth would compose for the instrument, including other popular selections such as Jephthah for saxophone duo and strings, piano, and percussion (1958), Diversions in Denim for saxophone quartet (1971), Portals for saxophone orchestra (1971), and Beyond These Hills (1961) and Dark Flows the River (1970) for saxophone and piano. The ossia passages found throughout the published solo part of the Idlewood do not exist in the original manuscript given to Raschèr.46 The composer, making the work more accessible to saxophonists of his day, added these at a later date. This allowed for a greater number of performances of his piece by saxophonists, without the high register
42American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers (New York: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 1966), p. 797.
43Carl Anton Wirth, “Carl Anton Wirth: Composer-Conductor, 1953(?),” Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
44Dale Wolford, Berkeley, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 26 October 1990, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
45Sigurd Raschèr, “Another Leaf from ‘Benefactors of the Saxophone’, 21 September 1987,” Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
46Carl Anton Wirth, “Idlewood Concerto, 1953 (?),” Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY. 36 expertise of Raschèr, while allowing the piece to retain a majority of its musical effectiveness.
5.2 : Wirth, Rochester Times-Union newspaper clipping.
Wirth composed in the solitude of his summer retreat, Idlewood on the Lake, at Lake Ontario. He gave the saxophone concerto its name, Idlewood, due to the location in which the work was composed. Wirth described his experiences working with Raschèr as well as a few thoughts on the concerto in the following newspaper article:
It was about as ideal an experience in collaboration between composer and artist as could possibly be hoped for. Infinitely patient and resourceful, Raschèr never complained that a passage was impossible: he simply practiced it until it came off or invented new fingerings to facilitate it.
There is one request I do have of the listener. That is to take the virtuosity of the performer for granted (may Sigurd Raschèr forgive me) and listen to it as music. 37 As he plays, it is not an instrument, a saxophone, but the inner voice of a man crying in solitude, remembering wistfully, singing exultantly, hoping, grieving, loving, striving, and rejoicing.47
In the above article, Wirth expressed his satisfaction with Raschèr’s musical interpretation and technical execution of the concerto. Three years earlier, the composer had some apprehension about the high register demands of the work, but these were dispelled after his collaboration with Raschèr:
After a very hectic summer, I finally was able to settle down and begin working on your concerto. The 1st movement is completely sketched out and I am very anxious to try it over with you. This movement exploits your entire range. At this point I am very pleased with it and hope I haven’t written technically impossible things. Is it possible that one of your playing engagements would bring us close enough together in the near future to try it over?48
47Chattanooga News-Free Press (Chattanooga), 23 October 1956.
48Carl Anton Wirth, Rochester, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 29 December 1953, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY. 38
5.3 : Wirth, Chattanooga News-Free Press newspaper clipping.
39
5.4 : Wirth, Idlewood Concerto world premiere program.
40 Analysis Wirth’s concerto displays the saxophone’s virtuosic capabilities straight away; within the first sixteen bars nearly four full octaves are used, with the saxophone building momentum up to G4. This is achieved by the use of leapwise/stepwise motion within ascending eighth notes and eighth note triplets beginning in measure 13.
Example 5.1 : Movement 1, mm. 11-17.
Example 5.2 uses a similar approach with leapwise/stepwise motion, but instead of an ascending line to reach a single high note, Wirth descends from an initial F#3 by using two eighth notes followed by two quarter notes. This five-note motive occurs twice within measures 95 and 96, with the first quarter-note pitch following the final eighth note pitch being higher than the previous. The final eighth-note flourish in measure 97 leads to B4, followed by a descending two-octave leap and descending perfect fourth to F#1.
Example 5.2 : Movement 1, mm. 92-97. 41 Example 5.3 begins with familiar stepwise/leapwise motion of eighth notes and eighth note triplets from Example 6.1 (measures 13-15), but quickly changes course and descends from A3 in chordal fashion to C#1 in measures 111-113. This is followed by an intervallic leap of two octaves plus a half step, the recurring stepwise/leapwise motive, and then a leap into the fourth octave of the instrument’s range to F#4.
Example 5.3 : Movement 1, mm. 105-119.
Example 5.4 again uses leapwise/stepwise motion from measure 153, and outlines an ascending A-minor scale beginning in measure 155. After arriving at C4 in measure 157, the passage has a minor seventh leap down to D3. The same minor seventh relationship occurs again between G3 down to A2, and if one inverts the second and fourth intervals (D-natural and A-natural), the leapwise/stepwise relationship between the four pitches in measure 157 is revealed.
Example 5.4 : Movement 1, mm. 153-157.
42 Example 5.5 is another example of leapwise/stepwise motion and can be seen in measures 169, 171, 172, and 173.
Example 5.5 : Movement 1, mm. 169-174.
At measure 178 in Example 5.6, the recurring stepwise/leapwise motive returns, and is soon followed by a flourish in measure 182 that builds momentum from eighth notes to sixteenth notes, and finally a sixteenth note sextuplet leading to C4. The example ends on C1 after four eighth note triplet figures, three octaves below the preceding C4.
Example 5.6 : Movement 1, mm. 177-187.
43 Example 5.7 represents the only high register passage in the second movement of Wirth’s concerto. In measure 194, an ascending eighth note motive begins on C#1 and ends on B#2 (C-sharp, F-sharp, G-natural, A-natural, B-natural, B-sharp). The motive is repeated one octave higher in measure 195, and then a new motive begins on C#2, two octaves higher than in measure 194. Though measure 196 still begins and ascends from C-sharp, it contains a different pitch structure (C-sharp, E-natural, E-sharp, F-sharp, A- natural, A-sharp) from measures 194 and 195, and arrives at B4 in measure 197.
Example 5.7 : Movement 2, mm. 194-197.
Like the previous example, Example 5.8 employs the use of melodic eighth note writing within three bars to ascend to an arrival point. Another eighth note motive related to Example 6.7 occurs in measure 194, this time with five pitches instead of six. The motive also begins on C#1, but ends on B2 (C-sharp, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-natural, B- natural) instead of B#2. The motive is repeated an octave higher like Example 5.7, but here it begins one semitone lower on C-natural, not C-sharp. The remaining pitches in measure 195 are also altered to retain this intervallic relationship (C-natural, F-natural, G- natural, A-flat, B-flat). In measure 196, Wirth lowers the first pitch again by a semitone, starting the motive from B3 (B-natural, E-natural, F-sharp, G-natural, A-natural) and in measure 197 the same pattern follows. In addition to a chromatic motivic relationship between measures 194-196, a chromatic relationship between the first pitches of measures 194-197 is also established (C-sharp, C-natural, B-natural, A-sharp). Once A#3 is reached in measure 197, the passage descends to D2 in measure 198.
44
Example 5.8 : Movement 3, mm. 194-198.
Example 5.9 occurs at the end of the last movement. Two similar passages with leapwise/stepwise take place in measures 273-277 and 281-288. At measure 275, Wirth outlines an ascending D minor scale from A2 to reach A3 in measure 277. The second passage begins with descending leapwise/stepwise motion in measure 281. The passage changes course in measure 285 and ascends from D1 to A4, one semitone away from the fourth octave Bb5.
Example 5.9 : Movement 3, mm. 273-288.
45 CHAPTER 6 INGOLF DAHL (1957/59)
Figure 6.1 : Ingolf Dahl, undated photo, AllMusic Guide.
Background Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970) is considered an American composer, though he was born in Hamburg, Germany from parents of Swedish descent. Before relocating to the United States in 1938, Dahl completed musicology classes at the University of Zürich and composition courses at the Conservatory of Cologne. His principal instructors were Phillip Jarnach for general music studies and Volkmar Andreae for conducting.49 After arriving in California, he quickly established himself as an arranger and conductor in Hollywood. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in 1944, and from 1945 until his death, served as Professor of Music at the University of Southern California and conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra. He also held positions at other well- respected institutions, including the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood from 1952- 1955 and the Ojai Music Festival from 1964-1966. 50
49Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 373.
50Neil Butterworth, A Dictionary of American Composers (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1984), p. 114. 46 Dahl composed the original version of his concerto in 1949, and was excited to communicate with Raschèr about completing the new work for saxophone:
Finished! I am in the midst of the orchestration, will be done in a few weeks. Hope you will like the slow movement – maybe not at first but when you come to know it – you asked for 3 ! octaves and you got them…51
Figure 6.2 : Ingolf Dahl, Concerto world premiere program.
In 1953, revisions of the Concerto began with reduced instrumentation in the band accompaniment and a rewritten final movement. Removal of selected sections of the work and the addition of ossia passages in the saxophone solo began in 1957 and were completed by 1959. Alterations after the first revision in 1953 were never publicly
51Ingolf Dahl, Los Angeles, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 19 February 1949, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY. 47 acknowledged by Dahl, therefore the score continues to reflect the 1953 publication date although the content is actually that of the second revision (i.e., the third version) from 1957/59.52 Dahl was concerned that Raschèr would not adopt his final version of the work since he had been performing the original for several years.53 Although Dahl revised the Concerto, he intended that the piece remain the virtuosic saxophone work that he and Raschèr had originally envisioned.54 The composer expressed his thoughts on the situation in a humble, yet firm letter sent to Raschèr in 1959.55 According to Dahl, the revised version is musically superior to the original, and he considered the original version invalid. He clearly stated in his correspondence to Raschèr that “the old version must go” and sent his message with an unwavering request to cease performing the original version:
I don’t minimize the labor that re-learning such a difficult piece would present, but do you think it is unfair, if, after the composer has spent much time to make a work an artistically better work, that he would ask the performer to help him in this task?56
Several complete passages from Dahl’s letter to Raschèr clarify that the 1953 version (actually the third 1957/59 version) should be considered the composer’s most authentic work, and justifies this anthology’s focus on this third version from 1957/59:
When I received the notices of your recent performances of the concerto I was really swayed by mixed feelings: on the one hand, I was really very happy and grateful for the fact that you were still programming the work (so many concertos
52James Nilson Berdahl, “Ingolf Dahl: His Life and Works” (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Miami, 1975), pp. 131-134.
53Despite Dahl’s request, Raschèr continued to perform the original version of the Concerto throughout the rest of his career.
54Ibid., 18 July 1959.
55Ingolf Dahl, Los Angeles, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 18 July 1959, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
56Ibid., 18 July 1959. 48 have been written for you recently!) and also, in parenthesis, that you remembered to ask them for rental charges for the material, - but, on the other hand, I realized how much harder these recent performances would make the re-learning of the solo part in the new (i.e. 1953) [sic] version. And that is going to be the point of this letter: to make you see not only the musical superiority of the new version, but also its greater usefulness to you and to others, and finally to plead with you to try to bring it a few steps closer to a recording by you, Fennell, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, while you are there.
1) I do not intend to disavow the qualities of the first version (after all, Stravinsky was deeply impressed by it, and so were others) but I am prepared to say that in every detail the new one is superior. It would take us into a discussion of the internal workings of the music, into questions of harmonic progression, bass line motion, textural interest, rhythmic variety, etc. etc. if I were to point at all the details, so you will just have to take my word for it. Also, due to the cuts, the proportions are much improved (originally I just got carried away, understandably, by the delight in sonorities and the exploration of possibilities). I can well understand that the loss of certain passages hurts you (it hurt me too, at first) but again, you must believe me that the immeasurable gain of a more concentrated whole outweighs the loss of any charming detail, no matter how much one had become accustomed to it.
2) In the new solo part you will find all the high passages and virtuoso runs which were in the original and which you could possibly wish for. In working out this solo part (and I took a great deal of time and care for it, spending many weeks on searching for the “mot juste”) I kept in mind your requirements (including a special cadenza to the third movement) and the desirability of writing a work for more than one performer. I believe I have accomplished this.
3) Now, the ossias are closely modeled after the original version, but omit those details which, judging by the 1949 Illinois tapes you sent me, were awkward and ungrateful for the instrument, and they are as brilliant and demanding as anything I know for the instrument. I am not sure whether you will want to consider all the ossias as more suitable for you than the main staff, (I have my doubts, for instance, about III, B to H in the coda, p. 13) but that is a choice that you will have to make. Part of my difficult objective was: to design two solo parts which would both be musically valid with the accompaniment, which I think they are. Questions of details of choice you might want to discuss in person later.
…This leaves one very difficult problem, and if you understand my position in regard to the new version (which is, in a nutshell: the old version must go - finite - erledigt [done] - brinn upp det [burn it up]) I do want you to understand that I am also all too well aware of the problems of your position: it is infinitely harder to re-learn something which is similar but different to what one already knows than to learn an entirely new piece! Particularly the mastery of a technically 49 demanding musical piece, in which muscular activity is so much conditioned by gradually accumulated automatic reflexes, makes it a real and true obstacle to re- learn the piece. But I see no way out. And I say this without any attempt at insincere flattery: if I did not know you for the kind of more-than-virtuoso musician you are (an “artist”, that is, rather than a “performer”) I would not feel the confidence which I now have, namely that the only limitations you have are those that you set for yourself. I don’t minimize the labor that re-learning such a difficult piece would present, but do you think it is unfair, if, after the composer has spent much time to make a work an artistically better work, that he would ask the performer to help him in this task?
This is really all that’s on my mind and in my heart today. Thanks for bearing with me, and I hope to have a re-assuring word from you.57
Analysis As Dahl mentioned in the preceding letter, he retained many of the high register passages in the final version of the work. The first occurs in the form of an ascending E- major chord followed by a descending major ninth leap to the dominant seventh (E4, D3) in measures 13-16.
Example 6.1 : Concerto for Saxophone by Ingolf Dahl, Movement 2, mm. 13-16.
Later in the movement, Dahl reemphasizes the minor seventh, between Eb3 (m. 39) and Db4 (m. 41) in Example 6.2. This is followed by an ascending minor ninth leap from Bb3 to Cb4 in measure 42, and the line progresses with step-wise motion leading to a minor third leap (Cb4, Ab3) within eighth note triplets in measure 43. The process is repeated, except the minor third is changed to a major quality (Bb4, Gb3) in the second set of triplets. In measures 44-46, one can observe the integration of previously
57Ibid., 18 July 1959. 50 established musical relationships between intervals of the minor second, minor third, major third, minor seventh, and minor ninth.
Example 6.2 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 39-46.
The chords in measures 55-58 of Example 6.3 relate back to Example 6.1, and outline major chords with dominant sevenths: measures 55-56 (F-sharp, A-sharp, C- sharp, E-natural); measure 58 (B-natural, D-sharp, F-sharp, A-natural).
51
Example 6.3 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 54-60.
Similar to Example 6.2, Example 6.4 also focuses attention on the minor second (C-sharp, D-natural), a minor third followed by a major third (D-natural, B-natural, E- flat), and finally half step/whole step/half step beginning on Eb4 (E-flat, D-natural, E- natural, F-natural), completing the passage on F4.
Example 6.4 : Ibid., Movement 3, cadenza.
52 CHAPTER 7 ERLAND VON KOCH (1958)
7.1 : Erland von Koch, photo from Nordic Sounds.
Background Koch, the second Swedish composer (after Larsson) to write a significant work with high register passages, studied music initially with his father just as Henry Brant did.58 Koch would continue his musical training at the Stockholm Conservatory from 1931 to 1935, and subsequently pursue lessons with Paul Höffer and Clemens Krauss in Germany. Upon his return to Sweden, Koch initially worked as a teacher at the Karl Wohlfart Music School in Stockholm (1939-1953).59 He soon became the conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra (1943-1945) and professor at the Royal College of Music in 1953.60 He was a great lover of peasant and Dalecarlian folk music, and used these melodies often in his music.61
58Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, p. 901.
59Ibid., p. 901.
53 Sigurd Raschèr first experienced Erland von Koch’s (1910-2009) music in 1958, when he heard a performance of Koch’s orchestral work, Oxberg-Variationen (1956), in Sweden. The Oxberg-Variationen happened to be featured on a concert along with Ibert’s Concertino during one of Raschèr’s many performance tours. After hearing Koch’s piece, Raschèr was immediately interested in meeting the composer and sought him out once the tour reached Stockholm.62 Koch was obliged to write something for the eager saxophonist, resulting in the creation of the Saxophon Concerto in 1958. The work was premiered the following year in Hobart, Tasmania.63
Analysis Like Larsson in Examples 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4, Koch precedes his high register writing with eighth note triplets in measures 122 and 123. After an arrival at F3 in measure 124, stepwise motion is used to arrive at B4 in measure 126, and then the melodic line descends to G#3 in measure 127. This creates a four-note motive between three quarter notes and a whole note, and will be referenced in Example 7.2.
Example 7.1 : Saxophon Concerto, Movement 1, mm. 123-128.
60Brian Ayscue, “Erland von Koch and His Saxophone Concerto,” The Saxophone Symposium VIII, no. 2 (Spring 1983): p. 8.
61Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 10 (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980), p. 131.
62Ayscue, “Erland von Koch and His Saxophone Concerto,” p. 8.
63Birgitta Huldt, “A Portrait of Erland von Koch,” Nordic Musical Cooperation Committee (December 1988): p. 3. 54 Koch uses stepwise/leapwise motion from G#2 in measure 209, with the four-note motive from Example 7.1 occurring in measures 209-210, 211-212, and 213-214. In these three sections, three quarter notes lead to an arrival point of a whole note or dotted half note. The intervallic relationships between the quarter notes vary slightly in each situation, but the interval created by the final quarter note and following pitch is always a perfect fourth.
Example 7.2 : Ibid., Movement 1, mm. 209-216.
In Example 7.3, after a sixteenth note triplet flourish with an arrival at an eighth note G2 in the cadenza, one can observe another situation with Koch’s use of stepwise motion. By using a quarter note quintuplet beginning on A3, Koch ascends to D4 by first referencing an A-natural half/whole diminished scale (A-natural, B-flat, C-natural) and then a B-natural whole/half diminished scale (B-natural, C-sharp, D-natural). Another sixteenth note triplet flourish occurs, this time with an arrival at an eighth note Bb3. The first quarter note quintuplet (beginning on A3) is referenced a minor third above, beginning on C4. Therefore, the ascending half/whole diminished scale begins on C-natural (C-natural, D-flat, E-flat) and is followed by a D-natural whole/half diminished scale (D-natural, E-natural, F-natural).
Example 7.3 : Ibid., Movement 1, cadenza.
55 On line 1 of Example 7.4, the same four-note motive from Examples 7.1 and 7.2 occurs, but the final note is referenced (instead of being repeated in exact value) by a descending/ascending octave leap. This happens twice in Example 7.4: octave leaps between A3 and A2 and again between F#3 and F#2. The four-note motive occurs one last time on the second line of the cadenza, this time without octave leaps. Instead, the last note is replaced with a dotted half note (D4) and is followed by a quarter note (C4) and quarter note triplets, exactly like measures 214 and 215 from Example 7.2. Notice that the high register passages are preceded by sixteenth note quintuplets, following the compositional trend of notes with less value leading to notes of greater value when approaching and ascending beyond Top F.
Example 7.4 : Ibid., Movement 1, cadenza.
The reader can observe another variation of the four-note motive at measure 56 in Example 7.5. Instead of three quarter notes followed by a whole note, Koch uses three eighth notes (A-flat, B-flat, A-flat) followed by a sixteenth note that creates the perfect fourth (D-flat). Measures 58-60 use stepwise motion displaced by leaps in measure 59 (G-natural to B-flat) and measure 60 (G-natural to C-natural) to arrive at Db3 in measure 62.
56
Example 7.5 : Ibid., Movement 2, mm. 56-62.
In Example 7.6, Koch uses a scale beginning on F3 in measure 29 to ascend to D4 in measure 32. This creates an intervallic relationship of a major sixth between F-natural and D-natural.
Example 7.6 : Ibid., Movement 3, mm. 29-32.
Example 7.7 illustrates another ascending scale and major sixth relationship (see Example 7.6). After an ascending sixteenth note passage in measure 138, a scale beginning on D3 occurs in measure 139. It ascends to B4 in measure 142, creating the interval of a major sixth.
Example 7.7 : Ibid., Movement 3, mm. 138-142.
Like Example 7.7, Example 7.8 begins with an ascending sixteenth note passage in measures 196-199. In measure 200, Koch again references Larsson by switching from
57 ascending sixteenth notes to ascending eighth notes, increasing the value of the remaining pitches until the line reaches D4 in measure 205. In measure 206, the line descends and the value of each pitch lessens, returning to sixteenth notes in measure 207.
Example 7.8 : Ibid., Movement 3, mm. 197-207.
58 CHAPTER 8 FRANK ERICKSON (1959)
Figure 8.1 : Frank Erickson, undated photo, Frank Erickson Papers.
Background Similar to Carl Anton Wirth, Frank Erickson (1923-1996) was a man concerned with his musical expression and output rather than becoming a household name.64 Erickson was not only an active composer and arranger, but also author and lecturer; he held positions with Bourne Music Company (1952-1958), the University of Southern California (1958), San Jose College (1959-1961), and Belwin Music Company (1962- 1964).65 In his teenage years, Erickson studied trumpet in addition to the piano, and was a performer with local dance and jazz bands on both instruments. While working in these bands, Erickson’s elementary harmonic knowledge of triads and their inversions
64Frank Erickson, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 1 March 1967, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
65The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers, p. 208. 59 expanded to include dominant seventh chords and additional extended harmonies. These early experiences contributed to his future skill and success as a self-taught arranger.66 Following a stint in the Air Force as a meteorologist during World War II, Erickson relocated to Los Angeles, and soon integrated into the jazz band scene. During his free time, he devoted himself to his own writing and became a composition student of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), and then began a formal education at the University of Southern California in 1948.67 Studies included composition lessons with Halsey Stevens, a well-respected composer, educator, and historical expert on the life and works of Béla Bartók. Erickson, however, believed that the most influential force in his artistic life was Clarence Sawhill, the band director he worked with at USC:
The person who had the greatest influence on my life was Clarnce Sawhill, the band director of the University of Southern California, during the time I was a student there. Sawhill was well known in the United States as a music educator and conductor and supported the school band movement. He encouraged me to write concert pieces for the band and to arrange the music for the half-time shows during the marching season. One of the pieces was Little Suite for Band. The University of Southern California Concrt Band, under the direction of Clarence Sawhill, performed the piece at a Music Educators convention in San Diego in 1950. Ken Walker, who was the educational director of the Bourne Company, heard the performance of Little Suite for Band and became interested in publishing the work.”68
This particular experience led to his strong relationship with the Bourne Company, and he soon started working there after his graduation from USC:
During the early fifties the Bourne Company was becoming more interested in the educational field and started publishing a larger amount of band music than they had done in previous years. The company needed a representative, and shortly after graduation, I started working for them. I not only continued to write music, but as part of my responsibility, I attended state meetings, organized exhibits, and went on sales trips taking stock orders from some of the dealers. I value my years
66Pamela Joy Arwood, “Frank Erickson and His Music: A Biography, Analysis of Selected Compositions, and Catalogue” (M.A. thesis, Central Missouri State University, 1990), p. 2.
67Ibid., p. 3.
68Ibid., p. 4. 60 with Bourne. It was a great experience and I met many people who were of help to me in my career.69
His years with Bourne were fruitful, and he composed several of his best-known works, including Fantasy for Band (1955), Air for Band (1956), Toccata for Band (1957), and Balladair (1958). In 1959, Erickson would produce his work for saxophone solo dedicated to Sigurd Raschèr, the Concerto for E-flat Alto Saxophone and Band. Raschèr became interested in Erickson composing a saxophone concerto after participating in a rehearsal for his Toccata for Band in 1958:
I had today the joy to sit in the band and play your Toccata. It is a fine piece and I am glad that it is played so much everywhere!
Hope you all are well and that your muse one of these days will sing a real saxophonistic song!70
Erickson began working on the saxophone concerto in 1958, but admitted to Raschèr the work would possibly take longer to complete than he anticipated:
I don’t know if you are aware of it or not, but I left BOURNE last October and am now spending all my time writing. The travelling was getting too much of a task and I just wasn’t finding enough time to concentrate on music. I generally write very slowly and while some composers can get a lot done in a few days, it generally takes me about two weeks to get the idea of a piece. Of course, I can work on many routine things along with this such as copying parts, scoring, etc.
I hate to make promises (and I am feeling very guilty right now) but now that I do have more time to write, I will give a great deal of thought to your piece. I have actually started on it twice, but neither idea worked out satisfactorily.71
69Ibid., p. 5.
70Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 11 May 1958, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
71Frank Erickson, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 20 January 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA. 61 As Erickson continued to consider musical ideas for the saxophone piece, Raschèr was relentless, and continued to entice Erickson to finish the piece sooner rather than later:
I have been asked to be soloist at the All Eastern Band and Instrumental Conference of the Navy School of Music in Washington, on Feb 5, 1960.
This is, as you most likely know, a rather big affair and has considerably outgrown the “All Eastern” aspect…
It occurred to me, that there would hardly be a more auspicious occasion to give the premiere of the Concerto you are working on. I thought, it is best, if I let you in on this right away, so that you can finish a concerto in good time, allowing me also to study it.
You know, that such a work might see very many performances.72
In August of 1959, Erickson was working diligently on the concerto, and encountered a problem:
Just a short note to let you know that I am hard at work on your concerto and that it is over half completed. Although I can’t definitely promise a completion date, I don’t believe it will take more than four or five more weeks. I have the work, as a whole well worked out in my mind, and that is half the battle.
There is one problem that has arisen. Just what is the highest note that is practical for you? There is a passage (in the middle slow section) where I have taken you up to the C# above the traditional top F. I know this note is playable for you, but the question is this. This high C# occurs at the very peak of a long crescendo and I want to make sure it can be played with a lot of volume. Just how loudly can these upper harmonics be played, and (thinking ahead to another section near the end of the piece) how does the facility in this high register compare with the lower registers?73
72Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 8 April 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
73Frank Erickson, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 27 August 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA. 62 Raschèr was delighted to respond to Erickson’s questions, and gave him all the confidence he needed to write freely in the saxophone’s high register:
I just returned from Interlochen to find your good letter. HURRAH! Sounds wonderful! When you have the work in your mind all worked through, the rest is just detail…
Why do you worry about a “high register”? Henry Brant asked for Bb (1! oct above “high F”) and it never failed… Though I do not have quite the facility in that register, as compared to the medium register there are many spots where I have to play sixteenth in that register and after due practising I can of course do it. The forte is no problem at all, and I can even play this register now pianissimo. (after all, I am still practising and, I hope, progressing). C# is no “altitude” at all – why not let me go up in the last (as yet unfinished) movement a few times to F?74
In another month, Erickson had completed most of the concerto, and sent Raschèr the majority of the solo part for study and feedback. Raschèr was on tour in Tasmania at the time, and replied with excitement to what he received:
I received the concerto, thank you! – and immediately went to work (between rehearsals and travelling!) It is only a question of practicing – don’t worry a second about the cadenza – it will come off with bravura! Let’s have more of it, my appetite is brisk! It will be most welcome to run through the Concerto in SJ on my way back.75
By 11 October 1959, Erickson had the work completed. Not only did the saxophone have a new work with which to display its musical and technical potential—it also had what the composer considered the best piece of music he had ever written:
Am enclosing the remainder of the concerto, and I now have it about 2/3 scored. I have your letter of the 2nd and glad to hear that the cadenza will work out. (I was pretty sure it would).
74Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 2 September 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
75Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 2 October 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA. 63 Now that the work is finished (the sketches) I can look at it as a whole, and I can honestly say I feel it is the best piece I have written. There are places in it that I hope you will not feel are too traditional…. Some people might call it “banal”. But the more I think about music in general, the more I feel that music must have a melody, and I’m afraid that my conception of a melody is almost in 19th century terms. I have written many pieces in really, a quite modern style (even worked for a while with the 12 tone row) but I can’t say my “heart” was ever in it. I realize you will have to hear the solo combined with the accompaniment before you can pass “judgment”, but I sincerely hope it pleases you.76
Analysis Erickson’s one-movement concerto mostly employs ascending and descending melodic lines. He writes in a singing style for the instrument, and his use of the saxophone’s third octave is implemented in this melodic fashion. In each example of his concerto there may be intervals larger than half and whole steps, but his overall writing for the instrument is diatonic in nature (see Ex. 8.1). In measure 118, the passage begins its ascent from a sixteenth note D2, outlining a Lydian/dominant scale until Eb3 is reached in measure 120. From here, leaps of minor thirds followed by perfect fourths occur twice, leading to an arrival point of A#4 on the final eighth note of measure 120. The chromatic motive that exists between the first five pitches of measure 121 (A-sharp, B-natural, A-sharp, A-natural, G-sharp) is repeated in measure 122 a minor third higher (C-natural, D-flat, C-natural, B-natural, B-flat).
76Frank Erickson, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 11 October 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA. 64
Example 8.1 : Concerto by Frank Erickson, mm. 118-122.
An ascending line begins on G3 in measure 266, leading to an arrival point at D4 in measure 272. Measure 272 repeats the five-note chromatic motive discussed in Example 8.1, beginning on D4 (one whole step above C4 in measure 122).
Example 8.2 : Ibid., mm. 266-273.
65 Though Raschèr requested multiple passages using F4 from Erickson, he only received one in the Concerto.77 In Example 8.3, an ascending melodic line begins on G- sharp in measure 295. Instead of repeating the same chromatic motive in previous examples, the melodic line ascends to F4 in measure 301, the highest pitch Erickson requests of the saxophone.78 The line descends from F4 to B1 in measure 305 via stepwise/leapwise motion.
Example 8.3 : Ibid., mm. 298-305.
The final example from the concerto showcases three full octaves of the saxophone’s range within a B-flat major scale, from Bb1 in measure 356 to Bb4 in measure 357.
Example 8.4 : Ibid., mm. 356-357.
77Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 2 September 1959.
78Though an 8va marking is missing from Example 8.3, the author has included the example for two compelling reasons: Raschèr always performed the passage an octave higher beginning on G-sharp in measure 299, and his documented request to Erickson to include one or more passages with F4 would have only been possible at this moment in the concerto (see citation 74). 66 CONCLUSION
The accomplished composers cited in this treatise were inspired to write significant works for the saxophone, an instrument that was still rather young and artistically unproven when compared to the standardized orchestral woodwinds of the period. Great respect must be given to Sigurd Raschèr, the remarkable musician who demonstrated that the saxophone could be taken seriously on the concert stage; it was he who enlightened these composers to the instrument’s full musical scope. Saxophonist John-Edward Kelly, one of Raschèr’s former students, outlines this process further:
No musical instrument, regardless how noble its origins or how rich its expressive potential, can establish itself fully without a repertoire of enduring artistic value; for an instrument is only as interesting as the music it has to serve. An instrument’s true musical task is fulfilled only upon a composer’s having applied its inherent sonorities as vital media for conveying his musical intentions, and a performer’s in turn having projected these intentions to the listener by means of that medium. Thus a composer seeks in an instrument its expressive capacity, which is defined by both the instrument’s construction and each musician who plays it. Accordingly, an instrument becomes attractive to a composer only when played with an irreproachable artistic level, and to a performer only when endowed with a rich repertoire. Hence exists a logical circle, governing the artistic standing of any musical instrument: an instrument needs a repertoire / needs a composer / needs a performer / needs a repertoire.79
Raschèr’s aim was to cultivate a substantial body of literature for the saxophone, and the four-octave range was a natural result of exploring the instrument’s full capabilities. His relationships with leading composers of his time allowed the saxophone’s previously accepted artistic boundaries to be lifted and to be replaced with an unmistakable musical framework for composers to work within.80 The result of this
79John-Edward Kelly, The Saxophone Comes of Age: The Saxophone Works of Ibert, Martin, and Larsson (Kirchsahr, Germany: by the author, 1992), p. 1.
80What is accepted as “idiomatic writing” for the saxophone’s high register has developed significantly since the foundational period of 1930-1960. Please refer to Appendix A for past and present pedagogical resources. 67 “logical circle” formed by Sigurd Raschèr and his musical contemporaries created many of the greatest saxophone concerti written in the twentieth century.
68 APPENDIX A PEDAGOGICAL SOURCES FOR HIGH REGISTER STUDY
Dabney, Denise C. and Donald J. Sinta. “Voicing”: An Approach to the Saxophone’s Third Register. Laurel, MD: Sintafest Music Co., 1992.
Getz, Noah. Stratosphere: Altissimo Etudes for Saxophone. Rottenburg: Advance Music, 2011.
Londeix, Jean-Marie. HELLO! Mr. SAX or Parameters of the Saxophone. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1989.
Luckey, Robert A. Saxophone Altissimo: High Note Development for the Contemporary Player (2nd edition). Lafayette, LA: Olympia Music Publishing, 1998.
Nash, Ted. Ted Nash’s Studies in High Harmonics for Tenor and Alto Saxophone. New York: MCA Music, 1946.
Rousseau, Eugene. Saxophone High Tones (Second Edition). St. Louis, MO: MMB Music, 2002.
69 APPENDIX B ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Ayscue, Brian. “Erland von Koch and His Saxophone Concerto.” The Saxophone Symposium VIII, nos. 2-4 (Spring-Summer-Fall 1983): pp. 8-17.
Cohen, Paul. The Original 1949 Saxophone Concerto of Ingolf Dahl. Teaneck, NJ: To the Fore Publishers, 1985.
Gee, Harry. Saxophone Soloists and Their Music, 1844-1985. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
Gordon, Dan. “Origins and Early History of the Ibert Concertino.” The Saxophone Symposium XX, nos. 2-4 (Spring-Summer-Fall 1995): pp. 28-39.
Horwood, Wally. Adolphe Sax, 1814-1894: His Life and Legacy. Baldock, England: Egon Publishing, 1992.
Kastner, Georges. Méthode complete et raisonnée de Saxophone. Paris: Brandus et Cie, 1844-1845.
Kotchnitzky, Léon. Adolphe Sax and His Saxophone. North American Saxophone Alliance, 1985.
Londeix, Jean-Marie. A Comprehensive Guide to the Saxophone Repertoire: 1844-2003. Cherry Hill, NJ: Roncorp, Inc., 2003.
Raschèr, Sigurd M. Do You Listen?. New York: Carl Fischer, 1994.
______. “Lars-Erik Larsson: My Dear Friend.” The Saxophone Symposium XII, no. 1 (Winter 1987): pp. 14-15.
Rettie, Christopher Scott. A Performer’s and Conductor’s Analysis of Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra. D.M.A. monograph, Louisiana State University, 2006.
Teal, Larry. The Art of Saxophone Playing. Evanston, IL: Summy-Birchard Publications, 1963.
Zumwalt, Wildy Lewis. Edmund von Borck: A Study of His Life and Music with an Emphasis on His Works for Saxophone. D.M. thesis, The Florida State University, 2003.
70 APPENDIX C SCORES RELATED TO PROJECT VIA EXCLUSION
Benson, Warren. Concertino for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (or Orchestra). Bryn Mawr: Theodore Presser Company, 1995.
Borck, Edmund von. Concerto, Op. 6. London: Kalmus, 1932.
Bumcke, Gustav. Konzert, Op. 57. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 1935.
Creston, Paul. Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (or Band), Op. 46. New York: G. Schirmer, 1966.
Dressel, Erwin. Konsert, Op. 27. Berlin: Ries & Erler, 1996.
Korn, Peter Jona. Concerto, Op. 31. Paris: Editions Salabert, 1956.
Larsen, Lindorff E. Concerto. Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen, 1954.
Tarp, Svend Erik. “Concertino”. Score. 1932. Available from the composer, Svend Erik Tarp, Lyngby, Denmark.
71 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Scores
Brant, Henry Dreyfus. Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. New York: Carl Fischer, 1941.
Dahl, Ingolf. Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra. Clifton, NJ: European American Music, 1979.
Erickson, Frank. Concerto for Eb Alto Saxophone and Band. New York: Bourne Co. 1966.
Ibert, Jacques. Concertino da Camera pour Saxophone Alto et Onze instruments. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1935.
Koch, Erland von. Concerto. Hamburg: Edition Marbot, 1959.
Larsson, Lars-Erik. Konsert för Saxofon och Stråkorkester, Op. 14. Stockholm: AB Carl Gehrmans Musikförlag, 1953.
Martin, Frank. Ballade pour Saxophone et Orchestre. Zürich: Universal Edition, 1966.
Wirth, Carl Anton. Idlewood Concerto for E-flat Alto Saxophone. Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser Co., 1954.
Books and Articles
Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1976.
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Third Edition). New York: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 1966. Compiled and Edited by The Lynn Farnol Group, Inc.
Arwood, Pamela Joy. Frank Erickson and His Music: A Biography, Analysis of Selected Compositions, and Catalogue. M.A. thesis, Central Missouri State University, 1990.
Austin, William W. Music in the 20th Century: from Debussy through Stravinsky. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966.
72 Berdahl, James Nilson. Ingolf Dahl: His Life and Works. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Miami, 1975.
Bergendal, Göran. Grove Music Online [Web site], “Larsson, Lars-Erik” (7 May 2007), Site address: http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu
Butterworth, Neil. A Dictionary of American Composers. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1984.
Deans, Kenneth N. A Comprehensive Performance Project in Saxophone Literature with an Essay Consisting of the Translated Source Readings in the Life and Work of Adolphe Sax. D.M. thesis, The University of Iowa, 1980.
Ewen, David, ed. American Composers Today, A Biographical and Critical Guide. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1949.
Ewen, David. The Complete Book of Twentieth Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959.
______. The New Book of Modern Composers (Third Edition). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967.
Gann, Kyle. American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
Getz, Noah Harrison. Henry Brant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra: History, Analysis and Performance Practice. D.M. thesis, The Florida State University, 2002.
Graves, William Stuart. An Historical Investigation of and Performance Guide for Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera. D.M.A. treatise, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998.
Huldt, Birgitta. “A Portrait of Erland von Koch.” Nordic Musical Cooperation Committee (December 1988): p. 3.
Kelly, John-Edward. The Saxophone Comes of Age: The Saxophone Works of Ibert, Martin, and Larsson. Kirchsahr, Germany: by the author, 1992.
Lundegård, Anders Olof. Anders Lundegård, Classical Saxophonist [Web site], “Background and Emergence of the Swedish Saxophone Concerto - Lars-Erik Larsson, Op. 14,” D.M. thesis, Northwestern University, 1995, Site address: http://www.classicalsaxophonist.com/dissertation.html
73 Raschèr, Sigurd M. Complete Scale for All Saxophones. New York: Carl Fischer, Inc., 1941.
Raschèr, Sigurd. Harmonics on the Saxophone. London: Clifford Essex & Son, Ltd., 1937.
______. Top-Tones for the Saxophone (Third Edition). New York: Carl Fischer, 1977.
Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 10. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980.
Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Sixth Edition). New York: Schirmer Books, 1978.
Non-Print Sources
Dahl, Ingolf, Los Angeles, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 19 February 1949, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
______, Los Angeles, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 18 July 1959, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
Erickson, Frank, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 20 January 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
______, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 27 August 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
______, San Jose, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 1 March 1967, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
Martin, Frank, Geneva, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 1938, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
74 ______, Geneva, to Radio Suisse Romande, Geneva, 30 January 1939, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
Raschèr, Sigurd, “Another Leaf from ‘Benefactors of the Saxophone,’” 21 September 1987, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
______, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 11 May 1958, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
______, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 8 April 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
______, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 2 September 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
______, Shushan, to Frank Erickson, San Jose, 2 October 1959, transcript in the hand of Frank Erickson, Box Number 60, Frank Erickson Papers, Old Dominion University Libraries, F. Ludwig Diehn Composers Room, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, Norfolk, VA.
Wirth, Carl Anton, “Idlewood Concerto, 1953 (?),” Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
______, Rochester, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 29 December 1953, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
______. “Carl Anton Wirth: Composer-Conductor, 1953 (?),” Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
Wolford, Dale, Berkeley, to Sigurd Raschèr, Shushan, 26 October 1990, transcript in the hand of Sigurd Raschèr, Sigurd Raschèr Archives, Music Room, Raschèr Residence, Shushan, NY.
75 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Adam Muller was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1981. After completing initial music studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in 1999, he received the Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2003, the Master of Music degree from The Florida State University in 2004, and the Doctor of Music degree from The Florida State University in 2012. Since 2004, Muller has established a successful performing and teaching career throughout the United States and in Europe. He served as the first classical saxophone professor at Florida International University, and was a founding member of The Kelly Quartet, an international chamber music ensemble based in Germany. In 2009, Muller became a member of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band at Fort Eustis, Virginia, and his service as a military musician has become a significant artistic area of his performing career. He remains equally active as soloist and chamber musician, giving performances with orchestra, piano and organ, and in various other chamber ensembles, and has premiered over a dozen new works for saxophone. Muller plays saxophones built in the 1920’s that possess the original acoustic design created by Adolphe Sax, the instrument’s inventor.
76