Output details

Homage to Father Bach/Celebrating Bach Audio-B ABCD5025

This concerto for soprano saxophone and string orchestra is the outcome of a research process focused on twinning improvisatory process with the contrapuntal language, three movement form, and musical materials of J. S. Bach’s oboe concerto BWV 1059 and the violin and oboe concerto BWV 1060 (both also performed on the CD by Garland, using a soprano saxophone in place of oboe). The melodic material of the first movement takes its lead from the rising lines at the close of the first movement of the oboe and violin concerto, and extends the already potent harmonies suggested by each. The solo part requires improvisation congruent with the composer’s contemporary harmonic language. The slow movement takes a chorale-based accompaniment in contrast to the rolling, often angular counterpoint of the first, while the third movement combines both, beginning with a role reversal between saxophone and strings, as the soloist plays isolated punctuations against an increasingly dense web of stretto counterpoint, eventually transformed into a rhythmic pattern supporting solo improvisation. The work was recorded alongside the Dumbarton Oaks suite, and its extended tonality also references Stravinsky’s processes, where scale-based figures derived from different keys simultaneously create a broad and sometimes brittle sound world. The work can be performed with harpsichord with a fully notated part, or with piano, where the player is encouraged to join the soloist in extemporization, with the opportunity to create a cadenza linking the second and third movements.

Première and live recording: 4th June 2008, Swaledale Arts Festival. Northern Sinfonia, soloist/director, Tim Garland; Subsequent performances: 27 June 2008 City of London Festival, Sacconi Strings (Broadcast on BBC Radio 3); Sage, Gateshead, 13 January 2009 and 10 May 2012.