Alto à la Mode

SKU: PR.114423380

ISBN 9781491135129. UPC: 680160686988.

Inspired by her friends’ beatboxing and exploration of jazz, flutist Chris Potter joins the fun and brings us along in this introduction to swing rhythm and the basics of beatboxing. Playing off the multiple meanings of “mode” and “à la mode”, Dr. Potter fashionably explores a world of varied scales and modern percussive sonorities where the ch- ch- ch- beatboxing attack leads players to chant about ch-ch-chocolate!.
A Few Words from ChrisThis title came to me out of nowhere at 4 AM one morning, and I just had to write a piece to go along with it! I love words with multiple meanings, and “mode” has three!The French term à la mode means in a current, fashionable style: in other words, popular. The alto flute certainly fits that description!For Americans, the phrase is used when describing the dessert pie à la mode, meaning pie with ice cream, typically vanilla. Pie à la mode has an interesting history! The phrase and the American dessert is attributed to John Gieriet. He was born in Switzerland, later moved to France, and must have studied cooking because two years after moving to the U.S. in 1854, Gieriet was put in charge of all the food service at the White House. He served under two presidents, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. When that job ended, he moved to Duluth, Minnesota and bought a hotel. In 1885, a menu for the hotel offered a dessert called pie à la mode, the first time this phrase had appeared in print. Originally it was blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream.In music, the term mode means a series of notes that have an identifiable pattern of intervals encompassing an octave. Major and minor scales are modes, as are other scale forms such as pentatonic, dorian, phrygian, and lydian. ALTO À LA MODE uses three modes, all based on D. In this piece, you will find the D blues scale (D F G Ab A C D), the D dorian (D E F G A B C D), and the D minor natural form (D E F G A Bb C D).In addition to the three melodic modes, I wanted a rhythmic idea or two to unify the piece. I decided touse the rhythms of the word vanilla: three short notes with emphasis on the second note, and chocolate: two short notes with emphasis on the first note. Also please notice that the spoken syllable cha is the beginning sound of chocolate! All this and no calories!I credit my fabulous friend Ali Ryerson for the jazz influence, and the wonderful composer Nicole Chamberlain for the beatboxing inspiration.