Three Songs

Description

Writing for Soprano Saxophone and Piano was a revelation – the dialogue between the instruments was as if they were two voices sharing a conversation on a subject that only they really knew about. So, I suppose, it was inevitable that I began to think of the pieces as a set of ‘songs without words’. However, there was something rather elusive about their characters and it wasn’t until they were composed that the titles, and the order in which they should be played, became obvious. These songs have been conceived in a non-standard harmonic language; for this reason the saxophone part intentionally has no key signature. Rhythmically, the songs are comparatively straightforward, although the constantly changing time signatures in Song Of Sorrow require careful counting. The range used is not excessive, with more use made of the higher notes than the lower ones.