12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 345

Date: 12/11/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

In today’s improvisation I wanted to evoke the deep, searching mood I felt this morning. This was not a sorrowful or melancholic mood, but more a sombre one. I worked with gentle textures that never got above a medium dynamic level. I used sound cluster fingerings that were very complimentary to one another, and around them I improvised a simple melodies that pushed and pulled against this landscape. I approached this improvisation as patiently as possible and tried to place each chord, each melodic shape, in precisely the location I wanted it to be. During this improvisation I used two primary fingerings to create a recurring pattern that the melodies were framed around. These two fingerings were as follows:

Fingering 1. Pitch: B

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

Fingering 2 (sound cluster). Pitches: B and Bb (quarter step sharp).

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

The first fingering seems to in a way melt into the second, as the two share a common upper pitch, the sustained B. The second fingering also has a number of other pitches possible that can be incorporated into the chord. As the piece evolved I began adding a Bb in the upper register at times, creating a darker chord with the following pitches (in ascending order) Bb, B, Bb. I derived the more melodic, single pitched material in part from this 3 note chord voicing. These improvised melodies included the pitches (in ascending order) B, G#, Bb, and B.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by John Divola (1974).