Monday evening featured the UWEC Saxophone Quartets in Phillips recital hall. Performances consisted of works by Pierne, Florio, Piazzolla, Iturralde, and Bozza. Great job to all who participated!
Saxophone Quartet Recital
Reply
The Transcription Process by David Liebman
Saxophonist David Liebman’s website contains a wealth of great education information, including the bit below about transcribing.
- Notation through saturated listening to the specific solo, the student internalizes (by singing at first) the notes and undertakes the painstaking, necessary craft of notating the rhythms and pitches of the solo.
- Playing – with repeated instrumental practice, the solo is exactly imitated in every way, including dynamics, articulation, nuance, time feel, tone coloring and of course, the rhythms and pitches.
- Analysis – using the classic methods of theme and variation study, motivic analysis and form structure concepts, etc., the student deduces to the best of his ability the thought processes represented in the work. By isolating passages and phrases, learning them in different keys and tempos, creating variations and using them in other comparable harmonic situations, the student begins to transform the transcription process from imitation to creation.
Performing Experience
Two of the UWEC saxophone quartets had the opportunity to provide some pre-concert music for the patrons at the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra concert this past Saturday night. The quartets performed works by: Eugene Bozza, Astor Piazzolla, Caryl Florio, and Pedro Iturralde. They gained some valuable performing experience (and had a good time in the process!) in preparation for the UWEC Saxophone Quartet recital on March 25th at 5pm in Phillips Recital Hall. Great job!
Review of Guest Artist Adam Larson
This past Sunday the UWEC saxophone studio hosted the Adam Larson quintet from NYC. Although only here for a short time, it was a great pleasure to have these talented musicians on our campus. They performed an hour’s worth of original music, and followed that with a question and answer masterclass session. The students asked some great questions, and it was interesting to hear the different responses from the different members of the quintet. Thanks to Adam et all for making the trip to Eau Claire!
McDonnell HS Clinic
This past Thursday the UWEC Saxophone Quartet (Nick Pierce, soprano; Ross Christianson, alto; Cody Norling, tenor; Sam Clark, baritone) performed for the middle school and high school students at McDonnell Catholic school in Chippewa Falls, WI. The quartet had a good time, and gained valuable performing experience for their upcoming gigs. Huge thanks to McDonnell band director Sean Hanson for inviting us up there!!
Taming the Saxophone
Image
Region 5 NASA Conference
Every instrument has a professional organization that brings together members of the professional community. For saxophonists, our organization is the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA). Every year NASA holds conferences on either a regional or national level. This year the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 5 (Wisconsin is in region 5) conference is slated to be held on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH on March 1-3, 2013.
I will be representing the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire at the region 5 conference by performing Chia-Yu Hsu’s Chasing Shadows for Solo Alto Saxophone. Dr. Hsu says this about the piece:
Chasing Shadows is inspired by the various timbres in different registers of an alto saxophone. The piece creates a dialogue between two voices. One has the leading role and the other chases after it; however, from time to time the roles switche between voices and it becomes ambiguous and harder to distinction between the main “entity” and the shadow.
See the schedule here - Region 5 NASA Conference Summary of Events
