Forecasts as written while I was a graduate student at The University of Minnesota. The Minnesota Saxophone Quartet premiered it in March 1989 at a Minnesota Composers Forum (MCF) concert at Walker Art Center. Each movement derives its title from meteorologists jargon, with the final segment resuming the unfortunate scenario of a future forecast, consisting of several distorted fragments of popular songs about rain. Hopefully, these are disguised enough to avoid copyright hassles and not upset the listener’s pH balance. – Daniel Kallman
DANIEL KALLMAN has written music in a variety of styles and mediums, with his latest orchestral works premiered by the Bloomington and Austin Symphonies. The Minnesota Orchestra, the Minneapolis Artists Ensemble, and the Plymouth Music Series recently commissioned him. Future projects include commissions from the Minnesota Sinfonia, the St. Olaf College Orchestra, and the Cherry Creek Chorale of Denver, Colorado.
The Saxophone Quartet: Eric Finney(soprano) has performed solo recitals throughout the United Sates and Japan. He earned a master’s degree in music from Ithaca College and a bachelor’s in music from Indiana University. His teachers have included Eugene Rousseau, Steve Mauk, Larry Teal, and Kenneth Fischer. When he is not recording, Finney can often be found performing and teaching contemporary music. Scott Hyslop (alto) is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, where he studied saxophone with Robert Samarotto. He has also worked with Ruben Haugen at Concordia College and the University of Minnesota. Hyslop is alto saxophonist with the Twin Cities Saxophone Quartet, a summer faculty member at Michigan’s Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and music director and organist at Berea Lutheran Church in Richfield, Minnesota. Kurt Claussen (tenor) is a Twin Cities woodwind teacher and performer. A member of the Ancia professional saxophone quartet sponsored by The Selmer Company, Claussen has studied with Rube Haugen, John Anderson, and Jean-Marie Londeix. He is currently completing advanced studies in saxophone performance at the University of Minnesota. William Burton (baritone) is a Twin Cities free-lance saxophonist. His performing career includes gigs with the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Lena Horn, and Cab Callaway Orchestra.
Tag, released previously on the MCF/innova recording Pure Saxophone and dedicated to saxophonist Richard Dirlam, is a theater piece for performer and self-prepared tape. The performer’s role is based on many aspects of tag; getting tagged, tagging others, tagging along, becoming it, eluding, enjoying, listening, hiding, and surprising. Because Tag is a theater piece with chorographical movements and gestures this recorded version represents the work’s aural dimension. – Eric Stokes
Eric Stokes studied composition at the New England Conservatory and the University of Minnesota with teachers including Dominick Argento, Paul Fetler, and James Ming. From 1961-1988, he taught music at the University of Minnesota where he founded the Electronic Music Laboratory and a contemporary music ensemble called the First Minnesota Moving and Storage Warehouse Band. His acknowledged major influences include Americana (jazz, hymns, folk music, Aaron Copland) and the experimental tradition of Charles Ives and Henry Brant. While his early works are tonal and lyrical from 1963 on he has moved toward a style with an expanded vocabulary including performance elements other than sound. The sources of his creative audio effects include metal springs, bird whistles and electronics. According to Stokes,” all sounds are innocent until proven guilty.” Richard Dirlam (alto saxophone) has concretized in the United States as a frequent guest artist with the MCF and Europe with L’ensemble International de Saxophone under the direction of Jean-Marie Londeix. He has also been invited to solo at the Seventh World Saxophone Congress in Nuremberg, Germany, with the Munich National Radio Orchestra, Werner Andreas Albert conducting. While studying with Londeix at the Conseratoire National de Musique in Bordeaux, France, he received First Prizes and medals of Honor in saxophone chamber music. He continues his studies at the University of Minnesota with Ruben Haugen and at North Texas State University with French conductor Serge Zehnacker. For Richard Dirlam, the 20th century and its music are truly remarkable. He explains, “The excitement of creating and exploring the modus vivandi of the human and musical expression of our time, and experience the sensuous character and essence of musical performance art compels me toward new and ever-broadening musical horizons.
HANBLECHEYAPI:
Crying for a Vision
Originally released on the MCF/innova Pure Saxophone, Hanblecheyapi was influenced by the horror and sense of sorrow at the assassination of John Lennon. As the piece evolved it came to address not only the loss of Lennon, but also a loss of innocence. It is a lament similar in emotional mood to Hanblecheyapi, the Crying for a Vision ritual of the Oglala Sioux American Indian nation. Black Elk, a Sioux priest, describes this important way of praying in the Sacred Pipe,”…there are many reasons for going to a lonely mountaintop to lament. Perhaps the most important reason for lamenting is that is it helps us realize our oneness with all things to know that all things are our relatives.” – Michael J. Aubart
Micheal J. Aubart is from Minnesota and lives in St. Paul. He received a doctorate in music theory and composition from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Paul Fetler, Eric Stokes and Alex Lubet. During this time Richard Dirlam asked him to write a composition pairing saxophone and audio tape. Hanblecheyapi is the result. A former instructor at the University’s Electronic Music Laboratory. Aubart still maintains an active interest in the facility and technology. He was a 1984 McKnight Foundation Fellow who received commissions from the Dale Warland Singers, The Minneapolis Artists Ensemble and other musical organizations. He has been a member of the MCF since 1976 and now serves on the Board of Directors. (Richard Dirlam, alto Saxophone)
TRANSPARENT VICTIMS for solo alto and soprano saxophones with a prerecorded soprano, alto, tenor, baritone saxophone choir, was written specifically for the talents of saxophonist Marshall Taylor who plays all parts. It is dedicated to those children who, deprived of their voices and awareness, wail silence. “the god of my childhood wears black robes, has horns on his head and carries and ax in his hand, how in the world was I still able to slip past him? All my life I have been creeping stealthily through my landscape under my arm the little bit of life I keep thinking I have stolen” – Mariella Mehr, Steinseit- (Stone Age)
Tina Davidson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in Oneonta, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. She received a bachelor’s degree in piano and composition from Bennington College in 1976 where she studied with Henry Brant, Louis Calabroo, Vivian Fine and Lionel Nowak. She has written works for orchestra, mixed instrumental and vocal ensemble, and soloists with prerecorded tape. Groups including the Florida Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, the Bennington Cello Quartet and the Relache Ensemble have performed her music throughout the United States and parts of Europe. Recent commissions have come from ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, Sylmar Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, New American Radio and the Mendelssohn String Quartet. Davidson has been awarded several grants from the Pennsylvania Council at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. She has been recorded on Mikrokosmik, Callisto and Coronet labels and was the Associate Director of the Relache Contemporary Music Ensemble for 10 years.
Marshall Taylor is a saxophone specialist with training and experience in classical, jazz, new music and free improvisation for modern dance. He studied at Wheaton College, North Western University and, on a Fulbright grant, at the Paris Conservatoire. His saxophone teachers include, Fred L. Hemke, Marcel Mule, and Henry Schuman. Related studies include woodwind seminars with Marcel Moyse, choral conducting and the music of J.S. Bach with Ifor Jones, Jazz keyboard and improvisation with Ron Thomas and the Alexander Technique with Martha Hansen and Jano Cohen. Taylor is a faculty member at Temple University, University of the Arts and LaSalle University. As a Saxophonist and conductor, he has recorded for organizations including National Public Radio and collaborated on color videos with Reynold Weidemaar.
FOUR SAXES
The influence of popular idioms upon the composition of Four Saxes is obvious. I have consciously used stylistic characteristics of jazz and R & B and tried to capture the wonderful energy and textures created in the performances of the World Saxophone Quartet. The saxophone seems to be the instrument most akin to the human voice. To this extent, I envision performances of this piece to be similar to those of popular vocal groups. Four Saxes was commissioned by Becky Heist and the Macalister College Dance Ensemble. – Carleton Macy
Carleton Macy is Associate Professor of Music at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he teaches music education, theory and composition. He also directs the Macaleseter Jazz Band, Collegium Musicum and the New Music Ensemble. He studied composition with William Bergsma, Robert Suderberg, and Donal Michalsky and has an active interest in Non-Western Music, performing with the Minnesota Chinese Music Ensemble. Macy is a prize-winning composer of more than 60 works for soloists, Choirs, Theater, and other ensembles of varying size. His compositions, performed by groups including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Dale Warland Singers, have been presented at local and national festivals. Some of these have been recorded on MCF’s innova label and Access Records. (The Saxophone Quartet)