MUSIC FOR SOLO SAXOPHONE PERFORMANCE PAUL NEWMAN A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothgque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'Sdition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-62285-8 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-62285-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Abstract This thesis is an account of my project to develop music for solo saxophone performance. Topics discussed include the techniques used to write this music, my approach to using it as a basis for improvisation, and some of the practice techniques I used in learning to play it. I also attempt to explain the influences, both musical and extra-musical, that have shaped this music. A recording of all eight pieces discussed in the thesis is included. iv Acknowledgements The music on In My Life represents a snapshot of my musical life as of the summer of2009. As music is an ongoing thing, I don't know where it will go in the future but I can look at my past and see where the present came from. I am eternally grateful to all those who helped me and are helping me in my journey. I would like in particular to thank David Mott, without whose lessons this music would be nowhere near as good. I would like to thank Timothy and Peggy Gianotti for literary advice and hospitality; Michael Coghlan for fixing my punctuation and helping me to clarify my writing; Mark Zurawinski and Tim Smith for unlocking the mysteries of the computer; Kyle Brenders, Rob Clutton, Dave Fish, Michael Herring, Germaine Liu, Aaron Lumley, Michael Morse, Scott Thomson and John Wilson for playing my music; Thomas Silvani and Dave Clark for recording it; and all the members of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto for being your own great selves. I have been blessed to work with and know you all. v Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgements v List of figures Improvisation and Composition 1 The Twelve Tone Row in Improvised Music 7 The Solo Music 18 The Pieces: "Like Water" 23 "Celebration" - 26 "Now Her Name is Ocho Brenders" 30 "Ant Farm" : - 34 "Car Pound Inquiry" 37 "Elk Gesture" 38 "The Third Language" 40 "Shelter" 42 Notes 46 Discography 47 Bibliography 50 Scores 52 vi List of Figures Fig. 1: Twelve tone row, four versions 12 Fig. 2: Eighth note grouping exercise for twelve tone row 13 Fig. 3: Twelve tone row in all transpositions exercise 14 Fig. 4: Matrix, prime row for solo music 17 Fig. 5: Rhythmic sequence for "Celebration" 18 Fig. 6: Melody for "Like Water" 23 Fig. 7: Row repetition in "Celebration" 27 Fig. 8: Error in melody of "Celebration" 28 Fig. 9: Overtone series 31 Fig. 10: Overtones used in "Now Her Name is Ocho Brenders" 31 Fig. 11: "Ant Farm," A section '. 35 Fig. 12: "Ant Farm," B section 35 Fig. 13: "Elk Gesture," A section.. 39 Fig. 14: "Elk Gesture," beginning of B section 39 Fig. 15: Beginning of melody for "Shelter". 43 vii Improvisation and Composition My principal interest in music is improvisation; all the music I write is intended to facilitate it. For me, then, composition is at the service of improvisation. And this raises the question, what is the difference between composition and improvisation? According to The Oxford Dictionary of Current English, to compose means "To create a work of art, especially music or poetry."1 To improvise means "To invent and perform music, drama or poetry on the spur of the moment." More detailed definitions are given by Ed Sarath in A New Look at Improvisation. Composition is "The discontinuous process of creation and iteration (usually through notation) of musical ideas."3 Improvisation is "The spontaneous creation and performance of musical materials in a realtime format, where the reworking of ideas is not possible."4 More poetically, the great jazz saxophonist and composer Steve Lacy was once asked to give a fifteen-second explanation of the difference between improvisation and composition. He replied, "The main difference is that in composition you have all the time you need to think about what you are going to say in fifteen seconds, whereas when you improvise you only have fifteen seconds to say what you want to say."5 I like to say that improvisation is composition without an eraser, but I think the important difference is in a word found in two of the three definitions of improvisation: performance. Improvisation happens in a performance; composition happens before the performance. The composition can be played 1 many times; the improvisation only happens once. Accordingly, I will use the following definition for the purposes of this thesis: I can repeat a composition. I can't repeat an improvisation. I write the composition down, and then improvise on it during a performance. The act of composition serves to set up a system within which I will improvise. One of my first experiences with collective improvisation was at a workshop given by Marilyn Crispell in the summer of 1988. During the workshop, she put together a composition made almost entirely out of a verbal narrative. I remember one section where she specified certain scales to be played, but essentially she gave us a story to tell and let us tell it through collective improvisation. It was, at the time, a unique playing experience for me -a half hour long piece where you didn't play any prewritten material but rather decided what to do by listening. And yet it was clearly Marilyn Crispell's composition, with a known beginning, middle and end. The recipe was supplied, but the ingredients left unspecified. I think that this was the beginning of my awareness that it is possible to be both a composer and an improviser at the same time. At that time, the improvised music scene in Toronto was very small. This changed with the arrival in the late 1990s of clarinetist Ronda Rindone and saxophonist Maury Coles. Ronda started an improvised music series (called the Improviser's Series) on Saturday nights at the Idler Pub on Davenport Road; Mauiy started the Improviser's Pool on Monday nights at the Cameron House on Queen Street West. Both lasted about two years during 1997, 98 and 99. At the 2 Improviser's Pool, names were drawn to determine who would play with whom. The music was always completely improvised. The Idler series presented already existing groups whose music was focused on improvisation. I played at both the Idler series and at the Improviser's Pool. Both were influential in my musical life. At the Idler I met and first heard many of the musicians who I still play with today, Dave Clark being a particular example. At the Improviser's Pool I played within a community of musicians every Monday night for two years. Colin Fisher, Jason Hammer, Thomas Krakoviak and Gordon Allen were there every week; other faces were new every time and some came for weeks or months before moving on to other things. The experience has influenced the direction of my musical life ever since, and it taught me a lot about what improvised music could be. At the time, I decided there were two truisms about collective free improvisation. First, three is the ideal number of musicians for free improvisation. With three imaginations at work there is no shortage of new ideas to keep the music moving forward; neither is there too much information to process. Three is a good balance of space, communication and variety. Two or four is great as well, but by the time you have more than five in the band, musical interaction can be getting difficult, as the amount of information that needs to be processed has become quite large. I think this is why so many free improvisation groups are trios.