Instrumentation: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and piano

Score Example: Trio Bel Canto

Duration: 4:00

Written for the Trio Bel Canto at Florida State University

Premiered at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida; January 22, 1991.

Recording: Louder than Words – Susan Fancher, alto saxophone; Steven Stusek, tenor saxophone; Inara Zandmare, piano. Red Clay Records RCR CD 001. Used by permission



Notes: The piece was inspired by a comment of Patrick Meighan, the organizer of the group, regarding the sad fact that Brahms never wrote a piece for the saxophone. There is also a suggestion of the bel canto singing style of the early 19th-century Italian opera, the two saxophones being treated as old-fashioned “divas” from the era of Bellini and Donizetti.

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