Rhapsody
for soprano saxophone and harp
Instrumentation: soprano saxophone (or birbynė) and harp
Duration: ca. 12 minutes
Year Composed: 2008
Commissioned by Pictures on Silence – Jaqueline Pollauf, harp; Noah Getz, saxophone
Premiered April 10, 2009 at the University of Baltimore in Baltimore, MD
Recording by Pictures on Silence released on CD in 2012
Score and parts measure 8.5" x 11".
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Program Notes
Similar to many of the numerous works bearing the same title, Rhapsody is relatively free in form and consists of a few core musical ideas transformed through several contrasting sections. After an extended improvisatory opening in which the basic musical materials of the work – semi-chromatic scales, repeated notes, bent pitches, harp pedal slides – are introduced, syncopation and secundal harmony guide these materials through several moments of dance, introspection, and drama. After the Piazzolla-like groove of the coda reaches its climax, the opening material makes a brief reappearance before a final dancing gesture brings the work to a close.
The work was commissioned and recorded by the saxophone and harp duo Pictures on Silence, and the saxophone part may also be performed on the birbynė, a traditional Lithuanian woodwind instrument.
To order the Pictures on Silence’s debut CD, Voyage, on which Rhapsody is included, click here.
— Charles Halka
Pictures on Silence: Noah Getz, saxophone: Jacqueline Pollauf, harp
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