Ritual 5
Composed: 2003 Duration: 6 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Alto & Piano Level D
Exam Grade: AMEB Saxophone Alto Grade LMusA
ISMN: M-720059-97-6 Catalogue: RM225
Level: D Country: Australia
Performed by Rompduo
Crazy Logic (for alto saxophone and piano, 2006) was composed at the invitation of saxophonist Barry Cockcroft and pianist Adam Pinto (RompDuo) for premiere performance at the 2006 Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, VIC, Australia.
Subsequent performances of the work include:
• Gerard McChrystal (saxophone) & Mary Dullea (pianist) @ Wigmore Hall, London, UK;
• Barry Cockcroft (saxophone) & Darrell Partin (piano) @ the 34th International Saxophone Symposium, Fairfax, VA, USA;
• Anhinga PianoSAX Duo @ 2011 North American Saxophone Alliance Region 4 Conference, Huntsville, Texas, USA;
• Jabra Latham (saxophone) & Karen Smithies (pianist) at The Ballroom, Epsom House, Pontville, Tasmania, Australia;
• RompDuo @ 2011 Australian Clarinet and Saxophone Symposium, Melbourne, Australia;
• Tim Roberts (sax) & Renate Rohlfing (piano) @ Selmer Paris Dragon Bird Event, Steinway Hall, NYC, NY, USA.In composing the work, I have chosen to use musical ideas of a mostly intense and driving nature. My melodic lines comprise semiquavers which twist, scurry, and traverse up, down and around the musical staves at a great pace.
Furthermore, the two instrumentalists often play in unison or at the octave, lending added urgency and directness to the music.
While a softer, more reflective mood is revealed at the heart of the work, it is the energetic music with its chromatic kinks, jagged contours and wide leaps that elicits, for me, the ‘crazy’ mood alluded to in the work’s title.
In stitching my ‘crazy’ music together, I have aimed to afford the work a certain logic by virtue of balanced phrasing and fluent transitions between sections of the work.
I thank Barry and Adam for inviting me to compose this work and for giving the work its premiere performance. M.O.
Contents: 1. Introduction, 2. Chorale, 3. Calypso, 4. Blues, 5. Finale
Performed by Continuum Sax
Performed by Rompduo
Performed by Rompduo
Performed by Kenneth Tse
Also available for Alto Saxophone
Antonio Pasculli was born on October 13th, 1842 in Palermo. He began his career as a virtuosic oboist at the age of 14 and by the time he was 18, was professor of oboe and English horn at the Regio Conservatorio di Palermo, a position he held until he became blind in 1913.
He was appointed director of the Corpo Municipale di Musica di Palermo in 1879, but due to his advancing blindness he withdrew from active concert life in 1884 and lived until 1924. Pasculli composed numerous fantasies for oboe and orchestra on themes from the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Rossini and Verdi. His compositions were often considered to be too difficult to be performed and therefore were forgotten by oboists until modern times.
Le Api for oboe and piano was first published in 1905 and was dedicated to the Conservatorio di Musica di Palermo. Although similar to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee, Le Api was written first, and is part of the three virtuosic studies Pasculli wrote for the oboe. From a postscript to the third study we learn that these were first performed in the big hall of the Conservatorio di musica in Milan on July 14, 1874.
The long legato ties are performed with circular breathing and there is only one place where the player can take a breath (break between phrases) in the entire piece.
This CD is no longer available. It is now available as a free digital download.
Please visit My Favourite Tutor Books for further information on this popular series.
My Favourite Tutor Books for woodwind and brass.
With up to 180 of your favourite tunes,
this new series of books will help you learn your instrument,
develop solid technique and understand music theory.
Everything you need is in the music.
For more information, please select from the topics on the left.
Piano accompaniment
Written by pianist/arranger Graeme Vendy, these piano accompaniments give a contemporary feel to the traditional tunes used in My Favourite Tutor Books.
Key Features
Play-along Tracks
Digitally recorded from a Steinway D piano, these play-along CDs are for students to play with at home or for teachers who do not have access to a piano during lessons. Each tune has a musical introduction, so no count-ins are needed. Students can quickly learn correct pitch, precise rhythm and harmonic awareness. Recordings match exactly My Favourite Tutor Book piano accompaniment books.