These three movements all explore their own sound worlds. The first movement, “Spring” begins with three simple melodic movements, is through- composed, and is meant to depict a verdant springtime landscape in which people/animals are playing. “The Golden Hour” is a meditation on the image of the sun setting (or rising). In photography, the term “the golden hour” refers to the time just before and after sunrise/sunset, during which daylight is reddish and soft. Lastly, “Bed Monsters” is an unbridled rondo that is evocative of someone or something being chased by a predator. The title comes from my wife, Amelia, who thought it sounded like a monster lurking under the bed (from her childhood...). 

Three Images  was commissioned by the Kenari and Barkada saxophone quartets for a combined performance given on March 12, 2016 in Lubbock, TX at the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference in Hemmle Recital Hall.


Three Images for Saxophone Octet

Recorded by The United States Air Force Band, Washington, D.C.
Colonel Larry H. Lang, conductor
Master Sgt. Jeremy Koch, alto saxophone

Program Note: 

Just before I began composing Solace, I had a great set of conversations with the leader of its consortium-commission, Connie Frigo. During our discussions, we talked about how well the saxophone can imitate vocal music and both expressed interest in a new concerto with a significant lyrical element. Early on, she suggested I read David Whyte’s Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning in Words. Whyte’s work meditates on words themselves, illustrating their deeper meaning, often revealing connections between difficult situations and their unexpectedly positive outcomes. Similarly, each movement meditates on a mood and is inspired by either a selection of text or title word from five consolations, picked by either Connie or me. Throughout the concerto, I challenge the soloist to play lyrically in extreme registers (called the “altissimo” register, which is above the typical, written range of the instrument) and while playing virtuosic passages in five unique sound worlds.

Whyte describes joy as the “the sheer intoxicating beauty of the world inhabited as an edge between what we previously thought was us and what we thought was other than us,”  which is where “Joy” takes its inspiration. This movement highlights the soloist’s ability to play difficult syncopations, made even more challenging by their dissonance with the accented beats in mixed, irregular meters.

In “Besieged,” the music expresses a darker sentiment. Whyte’s poem states that “Conscious or unconscious, we are surrounded not only by the vicissitudes of a difficult world but even more by those of our own making.” The saxophone is often pitted against or is competing back-and-forth with the wind ensemble, striving and fighting to overcome. The piece ends just after the climax and segues into the third movement, echoing Whyte’s sentiment that we must sometimes go through difficult challenges to be aware and grateful of what we have.

The third movement is the heart of the concerto. Whyte states that “Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life.” In “Gratitude,” my goal was to create the most beautiful and lyrical music I could to showcase the gorgeous vocal-like sounds of which the saxophone is capable.

I would have been remiss to neglect any noir or jazz-influenced sounds, as the saxophone is oft-associated with the sounds of jazz and blues. “Hiding” is a scherzo that explores the jazz/funk idiom. Whyte states that Hiding is “creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control…Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.” This movement is all about groove and its manipulation and the saxophonist, at times, gains a bit of “independence.”

Finally, “Work” is a perpetual-motion technical showpiece. The movement is written in rondo form, which means the “A” part from the beginning returns several times. With every new section, the soloist is presented with a slightly different technical challenge. The inspirational text summates my feeling of writing this concerto and what I imagine the soloist feels as they accomplish this “Work”: “Work among all its abstracts, is actually intimacy, the place where the self meets the world…We make what we make, we give a gift, not only through what we make or do, but in the way we feel as we do, and even, in the way others witness us in our feeling and doing, giving to them as they give to us…”

Solace: A Lyric Concerto

In August of 2019, I decided on a whim to try and climb the infamous Manitou Incline in Manitou Spring, CO. I set out on to the trail in the mid-to-late morning on a particularly hot day for Colorado and when I was about halfway up, I stopped for a moment to take a break. I realized I had no water left, was already quite hot, and my heart was not slowing down, even when I completely stopped to rest. I then had a series of panic attacks that made my heart rate spike to 200 bpm. Long story short, I was suffering from severe dehydration and a fireman came up the Incline to deliver a liter of saline to get me back up and running. I spent the next two days at home recuperating and decided that I would adequately prepare myself and would try it again. Facing my fear, I climbed it again, but was overprepared the second time. About a third-of-the-way up I had another panic attack, but through patience and perseverance was able to surmount my fear, pushing through and finishing the climb. It was exhilarating to best a goal that had beaten me just days before.

This piece follows my experience and is an expression of the emotions I felt. The first movement has a beckoning melody in the saxophone with bell-like sounds in the piano, followed by a bit of a playful “jam” that is reflective of the optimism I had heading to the trailhead. The first movement closes with screaming, urgent sounds, reflective of my panicked state while on the mountain. The second movement mirrors the devastation but lifts in the end to bring back a reprise of the first movement’s beckoning melody, calling back to the mountain. The third movement has a new section with a determined, break-neck feel that leads into another climb. This time, however, the climb results in conquering the mountain rather than it conquering the climber.

Huge thanks to Robert Eason for his help conceptualizing the piece and for help all throughout, organizing the commission and being the great friend that he has always been.

The Manitou Incline

I Anxiety

An excerpt of the first and second movement of my new work that will help celebrate the opening of James Turrell's new Skyspace, "The Color Inside."

Yunji Lee, violin 
Chloe Park, violin 
Andrew Haduong, viola 
Mic Vredenburgh, cello 

Lightscape - Dawn/Day (excerpt)

The Indigo Train (2015) takes its inspiration from a variety of sources and was written for my high school band director, Gary Wells. His son, Alex Wells, is the head band director at PN-G and wanted me to write a piece for his Dad. I first started out researching all kinds of things, and through various conversations learned that Gary grew up working on trains; his father worked at the train depot and his childhood is rich with experiences working on trains. For me, trains inspire images of the deep south and the rich history of the blues, which was born there and eventually traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago. This piece begins with a few bluesy solos by the bass clarinet, saxophone, and euphonium, followed by an ominous depiction of a mysterious railyard. The piece gets moving with a bluesy A section that three different melodies that are used throughout the piece. I imagined a person quickly traveling through railcars, experiencing a slightly different music in each. After a briefly-latin section, the piece moves into a sultry clarinet solo and then a ballad-like climax before rearing up to start moving again. Everyone gets together for one more last big chorus and a bluesy piccolo solo rips through the melodies heard before.   

The recording you hear was taken after the revisions of the piece in 2021. The SFASU Wind Ensemble is heard in this recording and was led by Dr. Tamey Anglley.

The Indigo Train

This piece was produced in collaboration with James Turrell and Landmarks.

Lightscape draws its inspiration from the daylight hours from dawn to dusk and also meditates on the evocative light sequences from The Color Inside. The piece begins in twilight, moves through dawn into day, depicts the wind and rainfall during a rain shower, and finally moves through a climactic dusk back into twilight

Mr. Turrell advises to begin the piece at about 30 minutes into the sequence if listening at the Austin Skyspace.

To view a score of this piece, click here:

http://issuu.com/joellove8/docs/lightscape/1
  

I - Out of Twilight/Dawn
II - Day (visions of flight)
III - Rain
IV - Dusk/Into Twilight

Yunji Lee, violin 
Chloe Park, violin 
Andrew Haduong, viola 
Mic Vredenburgh, cello

String Quartet No. 2 - Lightscape

This piece was commissioned in memory of Wayne Dyess, former professor of trombone and jazz studies at Lamar University.  In this opening excerpt, you'll hear the opening hymn followed by an excerpt of a fugue based on the hymn melody.  

This piece was commissioned by the Gamma Zeta chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Service Fraternity.

A Cardinal's Hymn (Excerpt 1)

Illustration by Paul Ryding - Texas Monthly 

Westbrook was a one-of-a-kind music educator who one of the very first to lose his life to COVID-19 in late March of 2020. He was an in-demand trumpet player and was a core member of the Symphony of Southeast Texas for more than thirty years, led the Spindletop Brass Quintet, and played jazz at clubs and casinos around the Texas-Louisiana border. As a trumpet player myself, I even played a few gigs with him back when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at Lamar University, our alma mater. Mr. Westbrook also directed bands at Hardin-Jefferson ISD and was a patient but demanding leader. His favorite hymn was “It is Well With My Soul” and when Dr. Andrew McMahan approached me to compose this piece I knew I had to use it. 

The piece features three soloists: flugelhorn, trombone and euphonium. The Southeast Texas music community lost two other influential figures in addition to Mr. Westbrook: Amy Pallone, who passed of cancer in April 2020, and David Johnson who lost his battle with depression in October of 2019. Amy played the trombone and David played the Euphonium, hence the inclusion of these two instruments.

It is Well begins with a broad full-band treatment of the climax of the “It is Well” hymn which is subverted, making way for my new original melodic material stated by the three soloists over a single pitch that is mostly hummed by the wind ensemble, which is meant to serve as somewhat of a reminder of how influential these folks were to all of the students in their careers . After the soloists state the melodic material, there is a brief flirtation with “It is Well” in the woodwinds before a dark restatement of the original material in the soloists again over humming. One final statement of the melodies is performed by the wind ensemble (with the soloists providing lines on top) and  culminates in a climactic statement of “It is Well” that is once again subverted. The piece ends with the trumpet soloist holding onto their pitch for as long as possible, just like we hope to hold onto the ones we love, even in memory, for as long as possible.

It Is Well

I wrote this a couple years ago in remembrance of my Uncle Dean's pup. In mid-2018 I asked Twitter "What would you want to hear in a modern nocturne for piano?" and the Holly Roadfelt answered:
"A long lyrical line, a clear form, an unexpected cadenza grounded by a solid bass, colorful harmonies, interesting textures, psychological "darkness"

I sought to combine Chopin's language with the jazz language. I didn't get all of her answer in there, but do you think I got most of it?

Photo by @karim_manjra

Nocturne In Blue

This is a transcription of a choral work I wrote when I was 23. The title translates to "Music, Gift of the Highest God."

Northwestern University Symphonic Band, Shawn D. Vondran, conductor

Musica Dei, donum optimi

This piece was commissioned as a surprise gift to honor Debra Richtmeyer at her retirement ceremony. While in discussion with her former students Erik Elmgren and Nicki Roman, I learned that she is looking forward to sailing in her retirement, hence the title. The phrase “Fair Winds and Following Seas” has unclear origins and it is really two separate phrases that eventually ended up together. The Dictionary of American Regional English states that “Fair Wind” means “safe journey” or “good fortune.” “Following Seas,” is defined in Bowditch’s America Practical Navigator to mean “A sea in which the waves move in the general direction of the heading.” It is a saying that wishes good fortune to the sailor on their way. This piece is based on a simple melody and travels through reflection, turmoil, and ultimately celebration. The piece meditates on the profound and lasting impact Debra’s extraordinary musicianship has had on her legion of incredible students and symbolizes her carving out a path in a male-dominated field. Having worked with Debra on my concerto several years ago, I know how important clear musical ideas are to her as an artist. I created this piece as a lucid expression and employed; a simSple ABA form, the use of clear and immediate musical materials, poignant but relatively simple harmonies, and as much heart as I could muster.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Duo Entre-Nous (Jackie Glazier & Don-Paul Kahl)

III. Feu

II. Vent

I. Terre

Live Recording from ABA February 2022, Dr. Stephen W. Pratt, Conductor Emeritus, IU WE

The word “offing” has two meanings: 1) the more distant part of the sea seen from the shore, beyond the anchoring ground; and 2) the near or foreseeable future. When I was writing this piece during my Copland House Residency in the summer of 2021, I frequently went to Charles Point on the Hudson to run in the evenings and watch the boats come in and out of the harbor. The sunset colors above the hills and the views from the shore were inspiring and are where this piece first got its genesis. Over the past 18 months, everyone has been challenged by the pandemic. This piece is an expression of hope and forward-looking optimism about the full return to making music that is in the near or foreseeable future. Like many other composers, it has been difficult to write while in semi or full lockdown, but when I was at Copland House I was reminded of why I write music; I consider composing an awesome privilege and to be able to create something that we can all commune with in the moment is truly wonderful. This process made me recall of one of my favorite Einstein quotes: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” As we return from our homes and back into the wonderful world of making music again, I hope that we are all rapt in awe, can open our eyes and ears, and ultimately are grateful for this wonderful thing that I took for granted: the simple act of making music together.

In the Offing

Oh Freedom’s original author is not known. It emerged out of the aftermath of the Civil War and was an anthem during the Civil Rights Movement. This arrangement was written as a response to Adolphus Hailstork’s American Guernica for The University of Houston Wind Ensemble’s 2025 TMEA appearance. In begins in the remnants of tragedy and moves to an expression of appreciation for Freedom. The first two times through the refrain are sung in a gospel style, moving from slightly pained to resolute. I have always been a huge fan of New Orleans jazz and the joy-amidst-the-sorrow jazz funeral, with its slow, dirge-like character that moves into an exuberant celebration of life. I particularly love how dozens of people often bring their instruments to play in the funeral procession. The audience is invited to participate in the fun and sing the final few refrains. 

Oh, Freedom!

http://issuu.com/joellove8/docs/in_memoriam/1

On December 2nd, 2014, my Dad lost his battle with cancer. In memoriam is a piece about the emotions  that we all went through after he was diagnosed in 2014. Although the work flows attacca from one movement into the next, the piece is technically “divided” into two halves: “Threnody” and “Adieu.” 

Threnody’s opening conveys anger, sadness, and confusion with a bold B-flat minor chord in an octave leap, a sigh motive, and a maelstrom of wild altered scales and jagged trills. Most of the movement’s material comes out these fierce opening bars. The movement is written in A-B-A’ form whose middle section features an acrobatic conflict between accented beats of three and four sixteenths. At the final return of the A, I modified the sigh motive by adding a bend between the two pitches to enhance its potency. The final return of the A comes to a climax and then floats into the ether (a sea of timbre trills), transitioning into the second movement.
 
Adieu (goodbye) is a celebration of life.  My father’s last words to me, other than “I love you,” were “live the life you want to live and never look back,” and are reflected in the ethos of the movement. The piece  emerges out of the ether, stating a simple rising melody slowly and in piecemeal. The first climax is quickly averted and the music is wrested back into the depths of the first movement with a dolorous bari solo over a texture dominated by trills. A sextuplet quasi-arpeggione gesture lifts the music out of the depths and begins a tumultuous journey that features another ‘duel,’ this time between melodic fragments from the first and second movements followed by a wailing bari solo that ushers in the opening material and the movement’s final climax.

I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to the Kenari Quartet for organizing the consortium and spending hours of their precious time helping me bring this to life.

This is a LIVE recording of the Kenari Quartet from their Grand Prize Gala Concert Performance of the 2016 M-Prize Competition

In memoriam

Three Images  was commissioned by the Kenari and Barkada saxophone quartets for a combined performance given on March 12, 2016 in Lubbock, TX at the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference in Hemmle Recital Hall.


Spring

The Golden Hour

Bed Monsters

To purchase a score, visit:

http://murphymusicpress.com/products/c-124

https://issuu.com/joellove8/docs/thre...

These three movements all explore their own sound worlds. The first movement, “Spring” begins with three simple melodic motives, is through- composed, and is meant to depict a verdant springtime landscape in which people/animals are playing. “The Golden Hour” is a meditation on the image of the sun setting (or rising). In photography, the term “the golden hour” refers to the time just before and after sunrise/sunset, during which daylight is reddish and soft. Lastly, “Bed Monsters” is an unbridled rondo that is evocative of someone or something being chased by a predator. The title comes from my wife, Amelia, who thought it sounded like a monster lurking under the bed (from her childhood...). 

This piece was premiered on March 12, 2016 at 11:20a in Hemmle Recital Hall at Texas Tech University during the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference. It was commissioned by the Kenari and Barkada quartets:

Barkada Quartet is Christopher Elchico, Shane Rathburn, Steven Lawhon*, and Justin Polyblank

Kenari Quartet is Bob Eason, Kyle Baldwin, Corey Dundee, and Steven Banks

* - Harrison Clarke subbed for Steven Lawhon on this world premiere performance.

Three Images for Saxophone Octet (Full)

This piece was commissioned by Musiqa and was premiered at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on May 5, 2016.

Dan Gelok, soprano saxophone; Matt Singletary, alto saxophone; Seth McAdow, tenor saxophone; Evan Withner, baritone saxophone

Program Note:

The five short miniatures of Saxophone Quartet No. 2 are all responses to Mark Flood’s 2016 exhibition called “Mark Flood: Gratest Hits.” In his exhibit, Flood engages with pop culture (among other things), which he refashions or adulterates in some way in order to comment upon mass media. I decided to mirror Flood’s practice of altering familiar mainstream messages in my first and last miniatures. In “Always,” I chose to parody the theme from a 1993 Coca-Cola ad campaign by overlaying the familiar melody on top of a somewhat janky funk groove, which is colored with multiphonics. In a similar vein, “This Just In” parodies the ABC World News theme. “Whispers” and “Lullaby” are responses to Flood’s lace paintings. In the context of his art, the lace paintings stand out as intentionally direct as they are constructed in an obvious way – lace applied, painted over, and removed – and are ostensibly free of the outspoken satire or social commentary pervading the rest of the exhibit. “Whispers” and “Lullaby” echo Flood’s technique and entice the listener through willfully familiar uses of traditional texture, harmony, and melody.

I. Always

IV. Lullaby

This was commissioned and premiered by line upon line:

Adam Bedell, Cullen Faulk, and Matt Teodori

Program note:

After the sun sets, there is a time when the light from the sun is scattered in the upper atmosphere and the surface of the Earth is between dark and light. In it, the clouds change color, things slow down, and the stars begin to twinkle as the Sun’s light completely disappears. In the Gloaming tries to capture this. The piece lightly pulses at the beginning  and fades away more and more with each new chord.  The instrumental combination helps capture the ephemeral sense of twilight as the wispy clouds melt into the night. The stars take over the piece (in the glockenspiel) as the clouds and light fade away into the ether.

In The Gloaming

Live Recording by the Frost Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami
Tina DiMeglio, DMA graduate conductor 

This is the second movement of a set of miniatures called "Three Images for Wind Ensemble." The title is a term taken from photography. A bit before and after sunrise and sunset, daylight is a bit softer and is perfect for taking photos.

This version of the piece was premiered by Dr. Ryan Kelly and the UT Symphony Band on February 20, 2017 at Bates Recital Hall at the University of Texas at Austin. The original work for saxophone octet was premiered on March 12, 2016 in Hemmle Recital Hall at Texas Tech University during the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference. It was commissioned by Kenari and Barkada quartets.

The Golden Hour (WE Version) -- Live

Synchronicity in Purple Minor was commissioned by The Blanton Art Museum at the University of Texas at Austin and was premiered on September 11, 2011 at Memorial Drive UMC in Houston, TX. 

Synchronicity in Purple Minor  was inspired by the Synchromy in Purple Minor  by Stanton MacDonald-Wright, which can be seen in the American and Contemporary wing of The Blanton Museum.

I love to think of music in terms of color, and, as it turns out, so did Stanton MacDonald-Wright, who, in 1912, founded an art movement called Synchromism.  This movement is special to me because it is founded on the principle that color and sound are similar phenomena and can be manipulated in similar ways.  

To shed a bit of light on the title, the term Synchronicity was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and refers to an experience of two or more events that are not causally related but work together in a meaningful manner.  

The work is in three main sections and is framed by an introduction and denouement.  There are three main musical ideas that are prominent throughout the work.  First, the quickly oscillating third used prominently in the piece, which, in my conception, resembles both the “dancing” of the colors in the work and their bleeding into one another as the harmonies change.  The second major element is the unison string technique, which I conceive to be a temporary concentration of color.  The final technique is a quasi-Doppler effect that is created by using quickly alternating pitches while simultaneously getting louder and softer, simulating the way the colors of the painting seem to “pop out” from the surface.  All of these elements are stated in the introduction and then developed throughout the work.

I would like to dedicate this piece to my mother, who, incidentally, was born the same day as its completion.  (Her favorite color is purple)


Synchronicity in Purple Minor

Liberation is a piece about breaking free from something that weighs down the spirit.This could be a painful relationship, a frustrating job, or some situation in which you have just HAD ENOUGH! 
The piece begins with a modal melody from which a good deal of the material in the movement is derived.After the melody is stated, there is an incessant back and forth, similar to bickering or arguing until there has been enough!The climax of the piece occurs as the saxophonist gratingly plays a multiphonic as loud as possible.The ending features a refashioning of the opening material.It is slightly hopeful, but still weary, as one might expect from a heated interchange.

This recording features Bob Eason on the alto saxophone.


Liberation

Aurora Borealis was inspired by the natural phenomenon that occurs in the northern latitudes.  In short, auroral events are caused by the collision of energetic, charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.  Last year I spent most of my summer playing piano in a rock band aboard a cruise ship that traveled from Seattle, WA to Anchorage, AK and back several times.  During a geomagnetic event late one night, I was fortunate enough to see the Aurora in the distance while sailing from Juneau to Hoonah, AK.  The piece has three main figures: an ascending/descending tetrachord, a repeated eighth-note motive, and a melody (first heard in the clarinet).  

Aurora Borealis

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabchant/

Finally, “Work” is a perpetual-motion technical showpiece. The movement is written in rondo form, which means the “A” part from the beginning returns several times. With every new section, the soloist is presented with a slightly different technical challenge. The inspirational text summates my feeling of writing this concerto and what I imagine the soloist feels as they accomplish this “Work”: “Work among all its abstracts, is actually intimacy, the place where the self meets the world…We make what we make, we give a gift, not only through what we make or do, but in the way we feel as we do, and even, in the way others witness us in our feeling and doing, giving to them as they give to us…”

Solace V. Work

Photo credit: @Edd___y (twitter)

I would have been remiss to neglect any noir or jazz-influenced sounds, as the saxophone is oft-associated with the sounds of jazz and blues. “Hiding” is a scherzo that explores the jazz/funk idiom. Whyte states that Hiding is “creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control…Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.” This movement is all about groove and its manipulation and the saxophonist, at times, gains a bit of “independence.”

Solace IV. Hiding

The third movement is the heart of the concerto. Whyte states that “Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life.” In “Gratitude,” my goal was to create the most beautiful and lyrical music I could to showcase the gorgeous vocal-like sounds of which the saxophone is capable.

Solace III. Gratitude

In “Besieged,” the music expresses a darker sentiment. Whyte’s poem states that “Conscious or unconscious, we are surrounded not only by the vicissitudes of a difficult world but even more by those of our own making.” The saxophone is often pitted against or is competing back-and-forth with the wind ensemble, striving and fighting to overcome. The piece ends just after the climax and segues into the third movement, echoing Whyte’s sentiment that we must sometimes go through difficult challenges to be aware and grateful of what we have.

Solace II. Beseiged

Whyte describes joy as the “the sheer intoxicating beauty of the world inhabited as an edge between what we previously thought was us and what we thought was other than us,”  which is where “Joy” takes its inspiration. This movement highlights the soloist’s ability to play difficult syncopations, made even more challenging by their dissonance with the accented beats in mixed, irregular meters.

Solace I. Joy

Real Fiction was commissioned by the Aura Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Michell Center for the Arts, and used as a soundtrack for the public art project Inbound: Houston. It was premiered at the Moores Opera House, Houston, TX on November 16, 2009 under the direction of Jaemi Blair Loeb.

Karyn Olivier on her public art project, Inbound: Houston
This public art project will engage the general public and everyday commuters on
their drive to work. Photographs of whatever exists directly behind each billboard will take the place of an advertisement. In a way, the project will unknowingly invite the commuter to a game of chance. If the weather conditions do not match those captured on the billboard photos, the art will appear as an interesting statement: Ubiquitous advertising will be replaced with representations of sky, bushes, buildings—whatever it is that would be seen if the billboard wasn’t there. When conditions are such that the weather and light match the photos on the billboard, the experience will be more surreal—a blurring of the line between natural and unnatural, real and fake, art and commerce. How will the commuter react to this potentially uncanny experience? And will commuters who repeatedly travel the same freeways become re-sensitized to the advertisements that they see as a result of this experience? One interest I have is in reengaging commuters with their surroundings. The uniqueness of these images will reassert the presence of the billboard, asking the viewer to notice and pay attention once again to what’s being ‘advertised.’

On Real Fiction:
Real Fiction is piece that was inspired by the art project Inbound: Houston. The
work explores the emotions that one may experience while passing the project’s billboards on Hwy. 59.
In our correspondence, Karyn Olivier mentioned that she is striving to “awaken” Houstonians with her artwork. The opening of the piece describes this awakening through music. She also envisioned the piece to “comment on the commuter’s experience of rushing down the freeway as they catch an instance of ‘nature.’” In response, the second section of the piece paints a picture of riding in the start-and-stop traffic that is familiar to any Houston resident. In the slow section of piece, the music reflects the naturalistic side of the billboards through the sounds of trills and tremolandi, which give the impression of rustling trees. All of the previous elements are juxtaposed over one another at a point of culmination during the climax of the piece. – J.L.

Real Fiction

Just before I began composing Solace, I had a great set of conversations with the leader of its consortium-commission, Connie Frigo. During our discussions, we talked about how well the saxophone can imitate vocal music and both expressed interest in a new concerto with a significant lyrical element. Early on, she suggested I read David Whyte’s Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning in Words. Whyte’s work meditates on words themselves, illustrating their deeper meaning, often revealing connections between difficult situations and their unexpectedly positive outcomes. Similarly, each movement meditates on a mood and is inspired by either a selection of text or title word from five consolations, picked by either Connie or me. Throughout the concerto, I challenge the soloist to play lyrically in extreme registers (called the “altissimo” register, which is above the typical, written range of the instrument) and while playing virtuosic passages in five unique sound worlds.

Whyte describes joy as the “the sheer intoxicating beauty of the world inhabited as an edge between what we previously thought was us and what we thought was other than us,”1 which is where “Joy” takes its inspiration. This movement highlights the soloist’s ability to play difficult syncopations, made even more challenging by their dissonance with the accented beats in mixed, irregular meters.

In “Besieged,” the music expresses a darker sentiment. Whyte’s poem states that “Conscious or unconscious, we are surrounded not only by the vicissitudes of a difficult world but even more by those of our own making.” The saxophone is often pitted against or is competing back- and-forth with the wind ensemble, striving and fighting to overcome. The piece ends just after the climax and segues into the third movement, echoing Whyte’s sentiment that we must sometimes go through difficult challenges to be aware and grateful of what we have.

The third movement is the heart of the concerto. Whyte states that “Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life.” In “Gratitude,” my goal was to create the most beautiful and lyrical music I could to showcase the gorgeous vocal-like sounds of which the saxophone is capable.

I would have been remiss to neglect any noir or jazz-influenced sounds, as the saxophone is oft-associated with the sounds of jazz and blues. “Hiding” is a scherzo that explores the jazz/funk idiom. Whyte states that Hiding is “creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control...Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.” This movement is all about groove and its manipulation and the saxophonist, at times, gains a bit of “independence.”

Finally, “Work” is a perpetual-motion technical showpiece. The movement is written in rondo form, which means the “A” part from the beginning returns several times. With every new section, the soloist is presented with a slightly different technical challenge. The inspirational text summates my feeling of writing this concerto and what I imagine the soloist feels as they accomplish this “Work”: “Work among all its abstracts, is actually intimacy, the place where the self meets the world...We make what we make, we give a gift, not only through what we make or do, but in the way we feel as we do, and even, in the way others witness us in our feeling and doing, giving to them as they give to us...”

This is a LIVE recording of the University of Texas Wind Symphony, conducted by Dr. Scott Hanna on December 4, 2019 in Bates Recital Hall.

THREE IMAGES was composed in 2016 as a saxophone octet for the Kenari and Barkada quartets to premiere at the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. Bob Eason, from Kenari, commissioned the octet, and both the octet version and this transcription are dedicated to him for his friendship and tireless championing of my music. The premiere of the wind ensemble version was given by Dr. Chad Nicholson and the University of Arizona Wind Ensemble on April 26, 2019 in Crowder Hall at the University of Arizona.

Program notes:

These three movements all explore their own sound worlds. The first movement, “Spring” begins with three simple melodic ideas, is through- composed, and is meant to depict a verdant springtime landscape in which people/animals are playing.

Photographers use the term “the golden hour” to refer to a time just before and after the sun sets and rises. During this magical hour, the light scatters in the upper atmosphere, is softer, and is filtered through clouds of wonderfully unusual colors. In my love of the mystical properties of the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Mean, the climax of the piece begins at about 61% into the piece.

Lastly, “Bed Monsters” is an unbridled rondo that is evocative of someone or something being chased by a predator. The title comes from my wife, Amelia, who thought it sounded like a monster lurking under the bed (from her childhood...).

Three Images for Wind Ensemble

Aerial Vignette was commissioned by Daniel Malacon and José Barrientos for the Timber Creek High School Saxophone Ensemble. It was premiered at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois on December 18, 2019 by Timber Creek High School Saxophone Ensemble.

Program Note:
When I first set out to write Aerial Vignette, I researched all kinds of things that I thought could somehow tie in well to Timber Creek High School and this commission. All that José and Daniel told me was that they would like the work to be a certain range in time, celebratory, and around a grade 4. With that in mind, I looked up their mascot, the falcon, and learned that they are the fastest animal on the planet, with their dives reaching speeds of up to 250mph! I wrote a bit of the first part of the piece, which starts with a simple melody that is used throughout and sent an excerpt to José and Daniel. We discussed the falcon and other things and we all thought the piece was beginning to feel like it was transfixed in the air, with a reflective, emotional, and, eventually, celebratory sound world that resembles what I imagine falcons might feel like soaring and diving through the air. Further underscoring the “aerial” idea is the soloist’s part, which is consistently written above the ensemble and really climbs high into the stratosphere during the climax. I would like to thank Daniel, José, and Michael Jacobson for all of their help throughout writing this piece and would like to say congratulations to these wonderful young people for taking on this and several other exceedingly difficult pieces. Bravo, Timber Creek High School Saxophone Ensemble!

Midwest Clinic 2019

Aerial Vignette

Hailed as "extremely moving" by New Music Box and "especially sweet" by the Austin American Statesman, the music of Joel Love (b. 1982) explores an eclectic mix of genres, from short video pieces to works for chamber and large ensembles.

Joel Love | Composer

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