Music Minus One Alto Sax-After years of neglect the saxophone quartet is rapidly regaining favor as an ensemble capable of the highest standards of musical expression. This is why many excellent composers especially those of French origin have written some of their best music for saxophone quartet so that today there exists a large repertory for this ensemble many of the best of which are included on this MMO album. Includes compositions by Pierne Boccherini Cailliet Clerisse and Hermann. Magnifique! Includes a high-quality printed music score and a compact disc containing a complete performance with soloist then a second version with the accompaniment minus you the soloist. Performed byArthur Ulichy alto saxophone

Michael Nyman is a composer pianist librettist writer musicologist photographer and film-maker whose work encompasses opera concert music and film soundtracks of which The Draughtsman's Contract and The Piano arethe best-known. Since founding the Michael Nyman Band in 1977 which tours the world he has worked with leading film directors and has collaborated with artists such as Mary Kelly Damon Albarn Carsten Nicolai and the recentOscar winning Man on Wire star Phillippe Petit.Songs For Tony for String Quartet was composed in 1993 in memory of Tony Simmons.'I began writing a saxophone quartet on New Year's Eve 1992. Inthe early afternoon of 5th January 1993 I was informed that my friend and business manager Tony Simmons had died after a long and heroic fight against cancer. I immediately sat down and wrote the music which became the fourthsong in what became a 'memorial' quartet. The previously composed music was scrapped as I decided to give each player in turn an 'aria' of his own.The first song is a transcription of an actual song - 'Mozart onMortality' - which I wrote for the Composers Ensemble in the spring of 1992. The text by Mozart himself is all too appropriate: 'I may not see another day'. The second song is adapted from the music for the scene in JaneCampion's film The Piano where the mute Ada (Holly Hunter) pushes her chief means of communication her piano overboard. This film was the last major deal that Tony negotiated on my behalf. The third song a soprano sax solo isbased on a tune I composed some years ago but was saving for a special occasion.' - Michael Nyman