Chamber Music Saxophone
Quartet
SKU:
PR.114417130
&
Happy Birthday to
Prism. Composed by
Chen Yi. Sws each.
Contemporary. Set of
Score and Parts. With
Standard notation.
Composed 2014.
24+12+12+12+8 pages.
Duration 14 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#114-41713. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.114417130).
ISBN
9781491110409. UPC:
680160626687. 9x12
inches.
A recipient
of the New Music USA 2013
Live Music For Dance
Award commissioning
grant, Not Alone is
inspired by the ancient
Chinese poet Li Bai's
poem Drinking Alone under
the Moon with the Shadow.
The premiere was given on
April 26, 2014 by the
PRISM Quartet with the
Nai-Ni Chen Dance
Company, which
commissioned the work to
celebrate its 25th
Anniversary NYC Season.
From the Program Note by
Matthew Levy (The PRISM
Quartet), Not Alone
(2014) is an
interdisciplinary
work...but it stands
alone in a chamber music
setting. The work spans a
stunning range of
textures, from
introspective solos for
each of the four
saxophones to majestic
hyper-active gestures.
The PRISM Quartet
recorded Not Alone for a
2017 release on XAS
Records titled Paradigm
Lost. But we're excited
for a wider community of
saxophonists to embrace
the work, and share it
with their own audiences.
Not Alone is published
together with Happy
Birthday to PRISM, a
brief miniature that Chen
Yi wrote for the
quartet's 20th
anniversary celebration
in 2004. For advanced
performers.______________
___________Text from the
scanned back cover:NOT
ALONE for Saxophone
QuartetHAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
PRISM for Saxophone
QuartetNot Alone is a
14-minute saxophone
quartet and dance score
inspired by the ancient
Chinese poet Li
Bai’s
“Drinking Alone
under the Moon with the
Shadow.†The
expansively-textured sax
quartet matches the
exploratory and dramatic
movements and gestures in
the dance. NOT ALONE was
commissioned by the
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
which premiered the work
in collaboration with the
PRISM Quartet. Also
included in this
publication is Chen
Yi’s fascinating
take on “Happy
Birthday to You,â€
composed in celebration
of Prism’s 25th
anniversary season.
A
recipient of the New
Music USA 2013 Live Music
For Dance Award
commissioning grant, Not
Alone is inspiredby the
ancient Chinese poet Li
Bai’s poem
“Drinking Alone
under the Moon with the
Shadow.†The
premierewas given on
April 26, 2014 by the
PRISM Quartet with the
Nai-Ni Chen Dance
Company, which
commissioned thework to
celebrate its 25th
Anniversary NYC
Season. Program Note
by composer Chen YiThe
original inspiration for
this work for both the
choreographer and the
composer came from the
Tang Dynasty poem - Alone
Under the Moon by Li Bai.
The poem describes the
poet being alone in a
garden. The moon and his
shadow became his
companions that night.
The choreographer brings
this idea to modern life
in an urban setting. She
created a series of
“mindscapesâ€
which are the result of
the exploration of the
different mental and
physical states of being
alone.Through
self-examination, the
choreographer raises the
question: are we ever
really alone? Our
physical being may be
standing by itself, but
what about our
introspective self? When
we are still, we let our
thoughts pass by like
flowing water. If we
could engage with our
shadows, what would it be
like?Program Note by
Matthew Levy, The PRISM
QuartetThe PRISM Quartet
has commissioned a great
many composers since our
founding days in 1984.
Chen Yi is among ahandful
of our very favorites,
and one to whom
we’ve returned
time and time again. Her
music is powerful,
expansive,intimate, and
draws connections between
Eastern and Western,
ancient and modern
traditions in a voice all
her own.Chen Yi has
written or adapted four
works for the PRISM
Quartet. She penned a
wonderful miniature
called HappyBirth day to
PRISM to celebrate the
ensemble’s 20th
anniversary back in 2004
(Dedication, Innova
Recordings).We
subsequently commissioned
her to compose Septet
(2008) for Erhu, Pipa,
Percussion, and Saxophone
Quartet(2008), premiered
and recorded with the New
York ensemble Music From
China (Antiphony, Innova
Recordings 2010).In 2015,
the PRISM Quartet
performed and recorded
(XAS Records) a new
version of her saxophone
quartet concerto,BA YIN,
with the University of
Missouri-Kansas City Wind
Ensemble under the baton
of Steven Davis
(originally writtenfor
the Rascher Quartet and
scored for saxophones and
string
orchestra.).Finally, Not
Alone (2014) is an
interdisciplinary work
written for the Nai-Ni
Chen Dance Company with
the PRISMQuartet, but it
stands alone in a chamber
music setting. The work
spans a stunning range of
textures, from
introspectivesolos for
each of the four
saxophones to majestic
hyper-active gestures.
The PRISM Quartet
recorded Not Alonefor a
2017 release on XAS
Records titled Paradigm
Lost. But we’re
excited for a wider
community of saxophonists
toembrace the work, and
share it with their own
audiences.In his liner
notes for the recording,
WNYC’s John
Schaefer writes:
“As with much of
her music, Chen employs
percussiveeffects and
glissandi; in Chinese
music these are not
considered
“extended
techniques†or
special effects, but
animportant part of the
performer’s
arsenal. Here, they help
create the twilit mood of
the opening moments. The
piecesoon becomes more
dramatic, suggesting the
arrival of the
drinker’s
companions (real or
imagined) and his or
herincreasingly garrulous
outbursts. Passages of
consonance and discord
can easily be heard as
companionable singingand
bouts of drunken
argument. The piece
bustles along on a kind
of restless energy,
until, finally, that
restlessnesssubsides,
giving way to a gently
humorous ending where a
short falling phrase
signals the drinker
falling
asleep.â€.