Work
Deux Plaisenteries
for alto saxophone and piano
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About
'Roll Jordan Roll' (movement one) is a series of genre variations on the African-American spiritual of the same name. The melody was transcribed from a 78rpm recording of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and in turn, this appeared on the 1962 Folkways LP entitled An Introduction to Gospel Song. In my version, the listener will hear my own harmonization followed sequentially by pastiches of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lennie Tristano, Anton Webern, and Thelonious Monk, in turn.
'Dangdut' (movement two) is a direct transcription of an Indonesian street musician called Mas Sujud. He and the tune appeared on a 1982 Kiwi-Pacific Records Ltd./Hibiscus Records LP called Music for Sale (Indonesian street music recorded by Jack Body). In the original, the singer accompanies himself on a small drum, and in my version, the piano part was generated solely by the notes in the melody and rhythms played by the drum. The sax part plays the melody.
This piece was recorded in 1991 by Taimur Sullivan (sax) and Allissa Eells (piano) with funding from the American (then Minnesota) Composers Forum.
Contents note
Two movements:
- Roll Jordan Roll
- Dangdut
Performance history
05 Feb 1991: Performed by Taimur Sullivan (alto saxophone) and Allissa Eells (piano) at Smith Recital Hall, University of Illinois Music Department, Urbana, IL, United States of America
10 Mar 1991: Performed by Kelly Thomas (saxophone) and Allissa Eells (nee Rhodes) (piano) at Smith Recital Hall, Music Department, University of Illinois, Urbana, United States of America
09 Nov 1991: Performed by Alison Sloan (saxophone) and Allissa Eells (nee Rhode) (piano) at the Recital Hall, Indiana University Music Department, Indiana, United States of America
05 Aug 1992: Performed by Taimur Sullivan (alto saxophone) and Allissa Eells (piano) at Smith Recital Hall, University of Illinois Music Department at Urbana, IL, United States of America
Performed by Taimur Sullivan (alto sax) and Alissa Eells (piano) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States of America
Performed by Taimur Sullivan (alto sax) and Alissa Eels (piano) at Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, October 1991