12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 235

Date: 08/23/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

In today’s improvisation, I used the division of range to create two sound fields. The first, which opens the piece, is centered from the mid to altissimo register. The second begins abruptly at :23, and centers around the low register of the horn. My goal was to create two very strong, but diverse sound environments that were complimentary to one another, and to create a gentle, undulating spirit in the piece. I used ornamentation in the first sound field (upper register) to create heart flutters within the repetitive cycle. As the piece evolved I began opening and closing the low bell keys in the second sound field (the lower register). This added additional pitch material, but also made the melody more ambiguous and less directly stated.

The first sound field used the following fingering:

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb key, Low C // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C. Trill the Low F constantly.

The second sound field used the follow fingerings:

Concert B and E: Standard Low C# fingering but trill the Low F key.

Concert A# and E: Standard Low C fingering but trill the Low F key.

Concert G# and E: Standard Low Bb fingering but trill the Low F key.

-Neil

The image “Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, Training the New Arrivals, project, Axonometric projection” accompanying today’s post by Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis (1972).