12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 343

Date: 12/09/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This is a piece exploring the mood of morning. I tried to express the notes not as a series of pitches, but rather as a raga or incantation of a mood. During this improvisation I used a singe fingering that incanted pitches ranging from the middle octave F (quarter step low) to the Altissimo Bb in the upper register. Within these pitches were little clusters that would emerge independently while playing, and others which I could very carefully control.

Several specific melodies were played during this piece which I pulled from the pitch series. These melodies tended to focus on the following pitch shapes: G to Eb // C to Eb // C-Bb-G (quarter step low). In total, the pitches I remained constantly aware of were as follows. They are written below in ascending order of pitch:

F (quarter step high), G (quarter step low), C, Eb, G, Bb. However, they were sometimes grouped in pairs or could also be independent. For example, the F (quarter step high) and G (quarter step low) were very clearly linked together as a two-note cluster, as were the Eb and G in the upper register. However the C in the upper register and Bb in the Altissimo register wanted to speak more independently. The fingering used for these pitches was as follows:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 2-3, Low C

-Neil

The image “Landscape, Monument Valley” accompanying today’s post by Jeffrey Silverthorne (1968).