Sonate pour saxophone alto et piano by Edison Denisov; Six Exchanges for Saxophone byLothar Klein; Suite pour saxophone solo, imposé au concours de saxophone di Conservatoireroyal de musique de Bruxelles 1973 by François Daneels; Concertino pour saxophone alto etpiano. Morceau de concours de Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris by RogerCalmel; Suite for Alto Saxophone in E♭ &Pianoforte, op. 102b by Han ...Review by: Jerome RosenNotes, Second Series, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Dec., 1975), pp. 388-390Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/897104 .

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a music inspired by North American Indian materials. The works of Ponce and Chavez come to mind, but few others. Recently, however, Louis Ballard has gained consid- erable attention for a number of works that also draw upon Indian heritage. Ritmo Indio, dedicated to Willard Rhodes and commissioned by the Martha Baird Rocke- feller Foundation for the Dorian Woodwind Quintet, employs not only what are pre- sumably characteristic rhythms and melodic patterns but also, in the second movement, a Sioux flageolet, which is to be played by the oboist. (The instrument can be obtained by writing to the composer).

In three movements (Allegro attaca [sic] e energica, Lamentoso e cantante, Nervoso e Inciso), the work makes no further unusual demands upon the players. Although clear- ly not intended for novices, it could well be played by amateurs.

The work's Indian elements are blended together in a harmonic texture more in- debted to the early twentieth century than to more recent decades. Sometimes penta- tonic but often quite chromatic, Ritmo Indio tends to be derived from relatively tradi- tional tonal concepts. The work is marred somewhat by consistently dense instrumen- tal writing and by an unimaginative work- ing-out of material, which naturally leads to lackluster formal structures. Neverthe- less, Ritmo Indio has its moments of excite- ment, which, together with its qualities of originality, ought to commend it to the serious attention of woodwind quintets ev- erywhere. Incidentally, it is the winner of the first Marion Nevins MacDowell Award.

The score is written in an attractive hand, and it is well printed. Parts and a perfor- mance score are available on rental.

ALLEN B. SKEI California State University, Fresno

lain Hamilton: Voyage, for solo French horn and chamber ensemble. Bryn Mawr: Theodore Presser, 1974. [Score, 48 p., $6.00]

Voyage is for solo French horn, six wind players, one percussionist, piano, and strings. Hamilton's fondness for French music is clear enough in many of his compositions, and Voyage bespeaks a deep understanding of the rhythmic and textural

structure of L'Apres-midi d'un faune and Le Sacre du printemps. The published score includes a quotation from Baudelaire's "Le Voyage," and on the liner notes for the recording (CRI SD 280), Hamilton cites as well the influence of Baudelaire's "Un Voyage a Cythere" and Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre."

A concerto-like formal organization con- trols the work, with solos at the beginning and end, a nocturne in the middle, and connective interludes for the ensemble and cadenzas for the soloist. It is strongly remi- niscent of Debussy's best instrumental works in its broad tertian chords, willowy arabesques around significant pitches, transparency of texture, and structural importance of the harmonic semitone. There are even quotations from La Mer and L'Isle joyeuse. The improvisational ele- ments are successful and skillfully con- trolled. Even the parts for strings, which could have cluttered the windy sonority, are articulated with restraint. Voyage is a work of French precision and an elegance that would have pleased Flaubert and Proust.

Barry Tuckwell and the London Sinfon- etta commissioned Voyage and made the quite spectacular recording. It should be a source of considerable gratification to composers and performers alike that new music of this difficulty can be performed and recorded shortly after its composition with the precision and clarity of a Mozart quartet.

The score is competently published from the composer's autograph by Presser, and it has a handsome blue-and-white cover. Similar in appearance and price are Epi- taph; Alastor for orchestra, (1970), pub- lished 1974; and Circus, for two trumpets and orchestra, (1969), published 1974. Presser's publication of these four pieces at once presents a fine opportunity to study the recent work of this facile and imagina- tive composer.

D. KERN HOLOMAN University of California, Davis

Edison Denisov: Sonate pour saxo- phone alto et piano. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1973. [Score, 34 p., and part, no price given]

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Lothar Klein: Six exchanges for saxo- phone. Bryn Mawr: Tenuto Publica- tions (Presser), 1972. [6 p., $1.50]

FranVois Daneels: Suite pour saxo- phone solo, impose au concours de saxophone di Conservatoire royal de musique de Bruxelles 1973. Bruxelles: Schott freres (C. F. Peters), 1973. [7 p., no price given]

Roger Calmel: Concertino pour saxo- phone alto et piano. Morceau de con- cours de Conservatoire National Supe- rieur de Musique de Paris. Paris: Edi- tions Choudens (Peters), 1972. [Score, 35 p., and part, no price given]

Hans GMI: Suite for alto saxophone in E b & pianoforte, op. 102b. London: N. Simrock (Elite Edition No. 3152), 1973. [Score, 29 p., and part, $7.00]

Allan Blank: Three novelties for alto saxophone. Islington, MA: Dorn Pro- ductions, 1973. [5 unnumbered dou- ble leaves, $4.25]

Edison Deniisov's handsome Son7ate is a valuable addition to a repertory which seems well supplied with morceaux de con- cours and pieces with names like "Prelude and Fandanigo," and not much else. Deni- soIn's work is in three movements, lasting about twelve miniutes. It is highly original but it is also very difficult, requiring the greatest technical command by both saxo- phoinist and pianist. Yet the challenge is worth facing by first-rate performers for the reward would be an exciting piece of music. It is generally characterized by a nervous, up-beat rhythmic push. This is more nioticeable in the fast-moving outer movements than in the slow middle move- menit, but it is in fact subtly operating there t(x). Pitches are carefully controlled, being genierally related by half-steps, frequently extended to major sevenths and minor ninths. The first movement in particular demands the utmost in rhythmic precision by the performers. The basic meter is 6/16, but there are frequent insertions, especially at climactic points, of compressions such as 9, 10, or 11/32, and these often contain rhythmic complications of the 10:8 vs 11:12 variety-including 32nd rests irregularly

scattered about. Nervous rhythms - probably nervous performers, but the effect could be quite exciting. Perhaps this rhyth- mic style is the most unusual and demand- inig aspect of the work. Both the first and third movements are developed through increasingly rapid passage work. The writ- ing is always idiomatic for each instrument, so there are no unreasonable demands for perfor-mers who are equipped with fast fingers. The middle movement is given almost entirely to the saxophone with only a few arabesques for the piano at the close. The saxophonist is required to play various multiphonics, quarter-tone inflections, and uniusual shakes. Fingerings for these are inidicated on the saxophone part. Leduc's edition is beautifully printed.

The other works under review are not in a class with Denisov's Sonate. Several of them might be of some interest at least as study pieces while the saxophonist waits for more substantial works to come along.

Lothar Klein's Six Exchanges for Saxophone is, as the title suggests, available to any member of the saxophone family. Since the work is unaccompanied there is no problem about transposition. From the looks of the music I should think it might sound well oIn the soprano, alto or tenor. Possibly an especially graceful baritone saxophone player might make something of it. There are six short movements. All except move- menit V are based on a fairly rapid beat, but III is written as a legato line of mostly pitches of extended duration, so the effect is of a slow movement, albeit con moto. Movements I, II, IV, and VI are all based on rhythmic patterns, generally motoric, which are first established, then displaced. These patterns are articulated by repeated inotes, ostinato patterns, or some combina- tion of the two. Each movement in itself is attractive, but the problem for the work as a whole is that these movements are too much alike. Similarly, movements III and V, which in any case lack profile, resemble each other too much. The composer sug- gests that, as an alternative to performing the entire work, either movements I, III, and VI or II, IV, and V might be played. This suggestion might be helpful to anyone considering this work for a program.

The Suite pour Saxophone Solo by Daneels and the Concertino pour Saxophone Alto et Piano by Calmel are, respectively, morceaux de concours for the Brussels and Paris con-

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servatories. They are typical of their genre, and are very well-written for the instru- ment. They call for all kinds of digital acrobatics, if not for much in the way of musical understanding. (Who has time for it while chasing all those notes?). Daneel's Suite is cast in five short movements. In movement II there is a slight concession to modern practice in the form of alterna- tive fingerings to affect written pitches in varying degrees. Calmel's Concertino is in three movements.

GaI's Suite for Alto Saxophone and Piano is identical with his op 102a, for viola and piano, except for transcribing the viola part to the saxophone. It was probably originally conceived as a viola piece, as the opus listing might suggest, for there is nothing especial- ly saxophonish about it. It is a long work in four movements. It is late-Romantic in formal concept and musical language, lying somewhere between Richard Strauss and D'Indy.

Allan Bland's Three Novelties for solo alto saxophone seems, at first glance, to be molto avant-garde. In addition to playing his instrument in more or less normal fashion, the saxophonist is called upon to stamp his foot in various rhythmic patterns, play a foot-operated maraca, sing through the

instrument, slap and tap it variously with metal, skin and fingernails, remove and replace the mouthpiece, etc., etc. The trou- ble is that each of these special effects is used extensively and repeatedly throughout the piece so that any possibility of shock, or at least surprise, which one would expect to be the sine qua non for the avant garde, is lost. Nor do the written-out parts amount to much. They are, by and large, a series of gestures-or half gestures-repeated a few times, then broken off. Moreover the score, with all its elaborate editing, does not seem well thought out. Is it really necessary to place an "M" for multiphonics above a stem which clearly has two pitches on it? Wouldn't it be more helpful to explain to the uninitiate how to produce "LB," which according to the index means lion's breath? Dorn Production's edition is curious, to say the least. The title page appears at the back. The music is printed on a series of double pages, unbound and folded into a cover sheet. I suspect the pages of the copy I examined are out of order. But there is no way of knowing with cer- tainty. The pages are not numbered.

JEROME ROSEN University of California, Davis

KEYBOARD MUSIC Gaetano Donizetti: Klavierwerke I: Stiucke 1-4. Ed. by Irene Patay. Lon- don, Ernst Eulenburg (C. F. Peters), 1974. [39 p., $6.00]

According to Guido Zavadini, Donizetti left 26 pieces for piano, two hands; most of them were student works. William Ash- brook accounts for an extra Sinfonia in C, "fatta in un'ora e un quarto"; the recent catalogue from I1 Museo Donizettiano at Bergamo lists yet another work, a "Pezzo per pianoforte . . . sul tema della 'Furtiva lagrima.'" In all there are fewer than 30 keyboard pieces from one of Italy's most famous composers; until recently most of them completely unknown.

Six of these 28 works have previously appeared in print: a set of variations on a theme from Mayr's La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa (Ricordi); La Giuseppina, a "polka- mazurca" (sic) (Girard, Naples); Tre valzer (Ricordi, c197 1); and an Allegro (Peters,

1971). This Eulenberg edition marks the latest collection, but hopefully not the last; indeed, the title page labels this volume as the first in a series of Klavienverke. It contains: (1) Vivace in G, actually an "Alle- gro vivace," Zavadini 295; (2) Larghetto, Tema con variazioni, Z. 300; (3) Drei Walzer, Z. 299 and 311; and (4) Allegro vivace in C, Z. 294.

Would that one could be grateful without qualification for such an abundant pre- sentation! Yet a discordant note arises; this comparatively lengthy volume is not com- pletely new; the Drei Walzer here are the same pieces as the Tre valzer in the Ricordi edition, edited by Carlo Pestalozzi. With so little available of the keyboard works, why duplicate 50 percent of what is already in print? If this newer edition were an im- provement one might accept it, but unfor- tunately, this is not the case. A comparison of the two demonstrates that the Ricordi edition is much more careful about mis-

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