2004B97C-6231-44B6-B520-3295A70606FC
| ID | 2004B97C-6231-44B6-B520-3295A70606FC |
|---|---|
| Titlecode | X642712 |
| Title Name | Burlesque for Alto Saxophone, Violin, Cello and Piano |
| Marketing Copy | A tongue-in-cheek parody of styles, genres and extant compositions from various periods in music history. Premiered at the '09 World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok by Thomas Liley and members of the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. |
| Instrumentation | Alto Saxophone, Violin, Cello, Piano |
| Commission | Commissioned by Thomas Liley and the World Saxophone Congress. |
| Dedication | (not set) |
| Program Notes | BURLESQUE is an adaptation and reworking of an earlier composition for a similar ensemble begun almost thirty years ago, but subsequently withdrawn. As the title implies, the work is a tongue-in-cheek parody of styles, genres and extant compositions from various periods in music history. Although the overall tone is intended to be humorous, the piece has a decidedly serious side as well, occasionally turning wistful and nostalgic. Even when the music from one era abruptly clashes with that from another, the styles or actual works referenced are treated with the utmost respect…and love. In the early stages of its composition, BURLESQUE was viewed as a passamezzo (a slow, processional dance in duple meter) coupled with a saltarello (a lively, rollicking dance in 6/8 meter), forms that were quite popular in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Ultimately, this basic design was expanded by the inclusion of a prologue and epilogue (both of which contain borrowings from pieces by Mozart and George Rochberg), an interlude appearing in the middle of the saltarello, and a varied reprise of the passamezzo. The passamezzo and its reprise employ the simple harmonic pattern of the sixteenth-century passamezzo antico overlaid with a melody of the same period that seems to have been a favorite discant for this dance type. The saltarello, for the most part, is a “re-composition” of passages from Liszt’s “Tarantella,” written in the same key and coincidentally exhibiting close harmonic and thematic ties with the passamezzo. Even the pitch materials of the free, “atonal” sections within the prologue and epilogue are derived from permutations of a tonally ambiguous melodic fragment excerpted from the “Tarantella.” The work, then, attempts at every compositional level to reconcile disparate musical forces, to forge the past and the present, the “tonal” and the “atonal,” the “borrowed’ and the “original” into a unified whole that is distinctly individual and personal. Claude Baker |
| Title Brand | 2 |
| Year Composed | 2008 |
| Copyright Number | (not set) |
| Copyright Year | (not set) |
| Duration | 16 |
| Ensemble Size | 4 |
| Date Created | 2010-12-09 20:33:16.000000 |
| Date Updated | 2025-09-30 20:33:16 |
| Inhouse Note | ASCAP notified 9/1/11 |
| Bsc Code | (not set) |
| Text Author | (not set) |
| Premier Performance Memo | (not set) |
| Recording Credits | (not set) |
| Review | (not set) |
| Awards | (not set) |
| Title Category | 2 |
| Title Movements | (not set) |
| Title Grade | (not set) |
| Set Series ID | (not set) |
| Title Instrument Category Text | Quartet |
| Title Sub Category Text | (not set) |
| Title Sub Category | -1 |
| Title Instrument Header | 19 |
| Title Grade Text | (not set) |
| Clean Url | burlesque-for-alto-saxophone-violin-cello-and-piano-x642712 |