Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty

for alto saxophone and jazz orchestra (5 sxs, 4tpts, 4tbns, 2 vlns, vla, vc, pno, bass and drum set)

Duration - approximately 22 minutes

Program Notes:

Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty is a concerto for alto saxophone and jazz orchestra that draws inspiration from the character of the same name in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. The title is both a tribute to Kerouac’s distinctive “bebop” writing style, as well as the piece that “made a lady out of jazz”, Gershwin’s concert masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue.

Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty is infused with Dean’s manic intensity and affection for long-blowing bebop solos. With extended solis and a lot of improvisation Rhapsody creates its own frenetic pace, spinning in circles rubbing its belly like a beatnik in a jazz club. For this the alto sax part is key, as the soloist is entrusted to take the motives and riffs from the written parts and develop them through improvisation into something new and fresh. Often, the improvisation is added in addition to written material, inviting the soloist to “comment” or respond to what the other instruments are playing. The melodic material presented throughout the piece can also be thought of in terms of improvisation, since many of the phrases are reused throughout in different ways, in addition to the tendency of introducing new melodies over previously used chord progressions. Rhapsody is always moving and changing, and the listener should find it both invigorating and taxing to keep up.

Although performed without pause, the piece is nonetheless divided into three formal movements, with a quote from On The Road beginning each.

 I.
…raised his horn and blew into it quietly and thoughtfully and elicited birdlike phrases and architectural Miles Davis logics. These were the children of the great bop innovators...

II.
...always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation...

III.
...that gloomy, saintly goof in whom the history of jazz was wrapped; for when he held his horn high and horizontal from his mouth he blew the greatest...

 

Portions of this piece were read by the Hartt Big Band in Dec. 2006, with Jeff Welsh playing the alto sax solo. Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty was revised in the spring of 2010 and will be premiered in the 2011/2012 season by Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band. Bobby will be playing the solo part.

Fall, 2012: Joseph Abad will premiere a new Saxophone Sonata.

Fall, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring-Summer, 2012: Jeux pour Jumeaux will be performed in San Francisco, CA.

Spring, 2012: Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band will premiere Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty in Kansas City, MO.

Spring, 2012: Ashly Evans will premiere Birdsongs in Houston, TX.

Spring, 2012: BA(da)SS will be performed by Ryan Ford in West Hartford, CT.

Spring, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

Spring, 2012: Not Death, but Love will be premiered by Ineo Saxophone Quartet.

Spring, 2012: David Tayloe will perform A Page Out of Zen in CT.

May, 2012: The Invisible, Magic, Soccer Phone will be premiered in Middlefield, CT.

April, 2012: The UMKC Opera Dept. will perform portions of Songs from Behind the Curtain.

April, 2012: David Tayloe will premiere A Page Out of Zen in NY.

Feb. 17th, 2012: The 016 Ensemble will be perform Romanza for Alto Saxophone and Violin in Manchester, CT.

Dec. 3rd, 2011: Ryan defends his dessertation, Songs from Behind the Curtain at UMKC.

July 17th, 21st, 24th, 2011: Music Faculty from the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will perform ...and those seven dwarfs in a series of concerts in Western Maine.

June 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 2011:Orphée Redux will be performed by Rhymes With Opera on their East Coast Tour (NYC, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston).

June 12th, 2011:Selection from Songs from Behind the Curtain will be performed at the John Duffy Composers Institute in Norfolk, VA.

May 13th, 2011: The Ineo Quartet will perform the 1st movement of Not Death, but Love on their Fischoff Competition program in South Bend, Indiana.

March 19th, 2011: The Ineo Saxophone Quartet will perform ...and love is fire... from Not Death, but Love at the NASA conference in West Point, NY.

Feb. 25th, 2011: I. Jest will be premiered by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.

Feb. 14th, 2011: Hebdomas Squatinae will be performed at the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

EVENT HISTORY