News
Legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis to give world première of Sally Beamish's Albatross at the World Saxophone Congress
- Scottish Music Centre
- 6 Jul 2012
On 11th July 2012 the legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis will give the world première of Sally Beamish's Albatross, a sonata for soprano saxophone and piano written especially for him. He will perform it at the World Saxophone Congress in the Younger Hall, University of St Andrews with Sally Beamish at the piano.
Marsalis had wanted a new saxophone sonata for inclusion in classical recital programmes for a while so Sally's suggestion that she write this for him for the World Saxophone Congress met with a very positive response.
Sally Beamish and Branford Marsalis have been friends since they met in 2006 when he performed her concerto The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. Since then he has been back to Scotland in 2009 to perform her work Under the Wing (in a new version for saxophone) at the Celtic Connections Festival. They have a number of collaborations under way including music for his quartet.
About Albatross Sally Beamish says:
When I knew that this new sonata would be given its premiere in St Andrews, by a passionate golfer, I wondered if there was a golfing term that might give me a starting point for the piece.
The first one on the list is ‘albatross’ – a term for the exceptional achievement of three shots under par.
The first movement of the sonata, which is driving and energetic, takes this as inspiration, with a short repeated motif which curls around a single note, like a ball finally dropping into the hole. The Latin name for the albatross, Procellariiformes, derives from procella: a violent wind or storm; and the unpredictability of sea weather is never far away.
Albatrosses have been described as "the most legendary of all birds", and they can be an omen of either good or bad luck - or even a burden to be carried as penance (as in Coleridge’s famous Rime of the Ancient Mariner). These huge birds are regarded in some cultures as embodying the souls of lost sailors. The second movement is a ‘barcarola’ – a kind of ghostly ‘sea-lullaby’ in 6/8 time.
The ‘Dance’ is a response to the extraordinary mating dance of the albatross – a kind of synchronized, symmetrical duet, interspersed with pointing and calling.
Ancient tribes used the wing bones of the albatross to carve flutes, and the last movement begins with a solo ‘open-air’ call. This is followed by a fast, quirky toccata section, which abates into a reprise of the ‘bird whistle‘ music, before a short, fast coda.
Albatross was commissioned by the World Saxophone Congress XVI with funding from Creative Scotland and The Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain.
World Saxophone Congress: http://www.wscxvi.com/event_12.php
Sally Beamish: http://www.sallybeamish.com/
Branford Marsalis: http://www.branfordmarsalis.com/branford/intro.cfm
