Passing Through the Seasons (2019) for alto saxophone and piano

This duet piece was written for alto saxophone and piano. Composer would like to describe different scenes of nature and the beauty of substance. In the passing through the seasons, different kinds of flowers and plants appear in its various states of sophistication. The enjoyment and the appreciation of changing cycle in the time period are essential components and perceptions. All constituents in the universal are impermanent.

In this piece, composer attempted to expose musical sound in an organic manner and as if to imitate the natural sonority and to accept or appreciate the inevitable cosmic order. The perceptible progress is being minimized. This musical composition explores its tone color in slow and subtle. The spotlight on the resonance movement is more important than the development. In other words, it is a display item of designed sound in different significant time.

Passing through the seasons

Stephen Yip’s music have been described as post-modernist in style, with Asian roots, gives the inner colors of an advanced spatial sense…….
Yip was born in Hong Kong and now living in U.S.A. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, studied with Law Wing-fai, Clarence Mak, and Arthur Gottschalk. He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, Luxembourg, the International Summer Course for New Music, Darmstadt, Germany, Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Yaddo Colony and MacDowell Colony.
Yip’s works have been performed in the Asia, Europe and America. He has received several composition prizes, included “Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award”, “Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize”, “Robert Avalon International Prize”, “Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra”, the ALEA III composition Competition, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition, London, England. His works are recorded in the ERM-Media, PARMA, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels.
Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at Houston Community College and works as a freelance composer.  More information: www.stephen-yip.com