0:00- Improvisation 1 by Ryo Noda

4:46- Tre pezzi by Giacinto Scelsi

Recorded live in Summer 2019

I am uploading this in search of some feedback on how to cut down the wind noise in the recording (caused by an industrial floor fan...despite the fan being a good distance away.) Having trouble smoothing it out through Noise Reduction and High Filter pass, so if anybody has any suggestions, I am all ears. :) (I like the performance, so I really want to keep it.)

Noda And Scelsi

My first album Americano (featuring pianist Chialing Hsieh) is now available on Bandcamp for $7.99!

https://kevinnorton1.bandcamp.com/releases
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I decided to do a self-recording of Erland von Koch's "Birthday Music for Sigurd Rascher" for two saxophones. (I am experimenting with recording and editing by myself.) Feel free to let me know in the comments your feelings on the recording quality, the editing, and any other helpful feedback!

[Recorded 5/7/21]
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ABOUT THE COMPOSER [from Wikipedia as of 3/23/21]:

Born in Stockholm as the son of composer Sigurd von Koch, Erland von Koch (1910–2009) studied at the Stockholm Conservatory from 1931 to 1935 and subsequently passed the advanced choirmaster and organist examinations. Between 1936 and 1938, he lived in Germany and France in order to pursue studies in composition with Paul Höffer, conducting with Clemens Krauss, and piano with Claudio Arrau. Later, he took private classes with Tor Mann in Sweden.

Teaching at the Karl Wohlfarts Musikschule from 1939 to 1945, von Koch also spent the final two years of this period working as a sound expert and choirmaster for radio broadcasting. He composed much music for the Swedish film industry. From 1953 to 1975, he was lecturer in harmony at the Stockholm Conservatory, where he was appointed a professor in 1968.

Von Koch became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1957. He has received numerous other honors and prizes at both national and international levels for his compositions. He has written six symphonies (of which the fifth, Lapponica, is dedicated to the Sami people), twelve Scandinavian Dances, one opera (Pelle Svanslös), and five ballets, as well as music for wind orchestra.

Even in his nineties he composed/studied every day. His works can be described as uncomplicated and his motto was always to "keep the melody".

Erland von Koch: BIRTHDAY MUSIC FOR SIGURD RASCHER (III. Molto vivace)

My first album Americano (featuring pianist Chialing Hsieh) is now available on Bandcamp for $7.99!

https://kevinnorton1.bandcamp.com/alb...

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SIX BAREFOOT DANCES:

I. Firm
II. Swinging 1:16
III. Walking 2:02
IV. Lively 3:08
V. Jaunty 3:58
VI. Brisk 4:56

Self-done home recording of a very fun, light, and deceptively tricky piece for two saxophones. Enjoy!

[6/14/21]
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ABOUT THE COMPOSER (from Classical.net):

John David Lamb (b. 1935) grew up in Yakima, Washington. He began to compose when he was six years old, having discovered staff-lined pages in the exercise book where his piano teacher wrote his scales and finger exercises. Since then he has composed in many forms: works for solo instruments, small ensembles, dramatic works, including works to be performed by children; songs, including the occasional civil rights protest song; as well as larger compositions for band and for orchestra.

Lamb earned academic degrees in music composition and conducting, but among his most important influences have been independent study with the Latvian nationalist composer Volfgangs Darzins and traditional Swedish folk music and dance. He has written some 150 fiddle tunes in the Swedish style. Some of these commemorate special events and many are played for dancing.

His works have been performed by the Portland Junior Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, the Brass Band Northwest, Thalia, saxophone ensembles throughout the United States and Europe, and a number of smaller groups. In 2003, Philharmonia Northwest performed his In Taberna. For more than ten years, Lamb has been a regular attendee at Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder, Colorado. For the 2006 festival, he was asked to compose a fanfare for orchestra to celebrate the gold medal awarded to MahlerFest by the International Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna, Austria. In February 2007, the Philharmonia Northwest performed his Song & Dance, a chamber concerto for horn and orchestra.

Lamb's recording company, Näckens Vänner, has produced five CDs: The Saxophone Project, with compositions for saxophone solo and quartet; Callithumpian Concert; Bird's Eye View; Bon appétit!, and Late Harvest. The saxophonists are from the East Coast; the musicians on the latter four CDs are from local organizations, including the Seattle Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and the Esoterics.

JOHN DAVID LAMB: Six Barefoot Dances (for two alto saxophones)

Single-take recording of "Consolation" by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (from his book Twenty-Five Caprices).

Karg-Elert: Consolation

This track needs some explanation:

On July 10, 2016, I performed Terry Riley's Dorian Reeds at Classical Revolution Cincinnati. The work is meant to have an echo effect that is roughly 2.5 seconds behind the live performance, thus creating many interesting chords and (since the tempo is listed as 112-124) many different rhythmic possibilities that stand a good chance of suddenly modulating in live performances due to various factors (especially if the tempo shifts slightly).

Unfortunately, while I was able to get a loop to go over the sound system, it was somewhat faint and wasn't well picked up by my microphone. (I also couldn't increase the volume on the soundboard, since even the slightest bump up from what I ended at always resulted in very noticeable feedback.)I decided to work on editing the recording, keeping it as close to the live version as possible but also overdubbing the live track starting at 2.5 seconds in. (I also did some other minor editing along the way if there was something noticeably wrong or that flat-out didn't work.)

Essentially, this is a test of getting used to editing using a live performance. If you get a chance to listen, please give me feedback (positive or critical). Any piece of advice or critique helps!

Enjoy listening!

An experiment in editing: DORIAN REEDS by Terry Riley [LIVE]

A recent recording I did of Wings by composer Joan Tower.

[1/14/17]
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Composer Note:

Wings (1981) was written for my friend and colleague Laura Flax, who premiered the piece at her recital in Merkin Hall (New York City) on December 14, 1981. The image behind the piece is one of a large bird—perhaps a falcon—at times flying very high gliding along the thermal currents, barely moving. At other moments, the bird goes into elaborate flight patterns that loop around, diving downwards, gaining tremendous speeds.

—Joan Tower

Joan Tower: WINGS

Recording of Figment by Alabama-based composer Everette Minchew. I recently also performed this work at the 2017 Navy Band Saxophone Symposium and on an edition of Classical Revolution Cincinnati.

[1/14/17]
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Composer's Notes:

This is one of my earliest works and my first foray into microtones. I composed this work over a 2 day period for saxophonist David Parks. He offered to give me a bottle of tequila for the work. I like the piece and I enjoyed the tequila.

Everette Minchew: FIGMENT

Live performance of Eugene Rousseau's arrangement of the first movement of the F minor sonata. (Recorded at Classical Revolution Cincinnati)

KEVIN NORTON, alto saxophone
BRIANNA MATZKE, piano

[4/9/17]

Brahms: Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120, No. 1 (I. Allegro appassionato) [LIVE]

A live performance of Mélyriques (for solo soprano saxophone) by Brazilian composer Jailton de Oliveira. [8/17/17, Cincinnati, OH]
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I. 0:00 

II. 2:43

III. 5:12
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ABOUT THE COMPOSER:

JAILTON DE OLIVEIRA is a Brazilian composer. Born in Medina (State of Minas Gerais), he received his Bachelor’s degree from UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas ) and Master of Music from UFG (Universidade Federal de Goiás). He has composed over 200 works including choral music, songs, pieces for solo piano, pieces for other solo instruments, opera, ballet, chamber and orchestral music, electroacoustic music.  His works have been performed in Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Italy, Russia and Argentina. He has attended important festivals such as the Campos do Jordao International Winter Festival and the Biennial Festival of Brazilian Contemporary Music.

In 1995 he won a prize at the “III Concurso de Composição da Escola de Música da UFMG”, with his work  Soneto n.1, for orchestra and his Fantasia for Viola Solo received a prize by the “Britten-on-the-Bay Composition Competition 1999”, in New York, USA.

Jailton de Oliveira: Mélyriques [LIVE]

A live performance of Eugène Bozza's Improvisation et Caprice at Lydia's on Ludlow in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Also, for a man who lived for eighty-six years, there are shockingly few photos of him...)

[9/21/17]
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ABOUT THE COMPOSER:

Eugène Bozza (Nice 1905 - Valenciennes 1991) was a brilliant student at the Paris Conservatory, winning First Prizes for the violin (1924), conducting (1930), composition (1934), as well as the Grand Prix de Rome. He conducted the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique until 1948; he then became director of the Valenciennes Conservatory. His works include several operas, ballets, large-scale symphonic and choral works. But his worldwide reputation is derived mainly from his many chamber works, written for various instrumental formations, with a preference for wind instruments. As Paul Griffiths points out in his article in the New Grove, Bozza’s works reveal “ melodic fluency, elegance of structure and a consistently sensitive concern for instrumental capabilities”.

Kevin Norton

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