Throwback Thursday – deus sax machina

In the wake of Donald Sinta’s retirement celebration and Tim McAllister’s wildly successful year touring with John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto, the PRISM Quartet, and the beginning of his tenure at The University of Michigan, I thought I would share a little history of my Sonata deus sax machina. Tim and I began our first year at The Crane School of Music together in 1997 and struck up an immediate friendship, which eventually led to our close collaboration on deus. Tim summed it up best in an interview he gave a few years ago:

“He introduced me to a terrific chamber work he composed while a graduate student at Florida State that included saxophone (Cyclic Movements), and I felt he would write a great stand-alone solo work. After much discussion, the result was his deus sax machina. He took a lot of time to learn about how I played and what techniques I embraced on the instrument, so the sonata covers a lot of material and vast sonic palette: from slap-tonguing, to circular breathing, to multiphonics. I premiered the work at the 2000 World Saxophone Congress in Montreal, and the piece was quickly embraced by the saxophone community.”  Fanfare Magazine 34:2 Nov/Dec 2010)

I vaguely remember a discussion about a set of pieces he wanted to record for an album that would be tentatively titled The Greasy Machine, and he asked me if I would be interested in participating, so I began work on this three movement piece on mechanical themes. (I should add here that the title deus sax machina really has nothing to do with the literary device – it’s really just a simple pun linking saxophones and machines as concepts…) I showed him sketches and drafts along the way, and Tim would demonstrate all the crazy stuff he could do, telling me to write “Higher, Faster, Louder!” My reaction to the “Louder” part of that comment was probably the softest overall movement I composed at that time:

I finished the piece in December 1999 at about the same time that Tim received Gunther Schuller’s Sonata that was that year’s Radnofsky consortium commission. Tim premiered deus sax machina with pianist David Heinick at the 2000 World Saxophone Congress in Montréal.

He played it several times over the next few years with various pianists, but the definitive performances were always those with Kathryn Goodson. The two of them recorded deus in Potsdam in the summer of 2005 for their Innova Records release IN TRANSIT, which also featured Mischa Zupko’s incredible title work and Roshanne Etezady’s brilliant Streetlegal.

I have been incredibly lucky that the work was championed over the years by several saxophonists around the world, and credit Tim’s and Kathryn’s recording with its longevity. In truth, I really did very little to promote the work myself… Well, except now… deus sax machina also appears on Noah Getz’s Albany Records release Crosscurrents with pianist Jeffrey Chappell, and there continue to be several performances throughout the United States and around the world.

The folks from YouTube (joke) captured a tremendous performance by saxophonist Thomas Giles and the Amazing Liz Ames here:

With all of this wonderfulness that I am shamelessly bragging about, I think that the greatest honor related to this piece is that it is listed as a repertoire choice for the semi-finalists of the 6th Adolphe Sax International Competition, which takes place in Dinant, Belgium from October 28 – November 8, 2014.

Okay, now this is supposed to be a Throwback Thursday post, but now that I have taken us to the present time, let’s look ahead a bit: I am thrilled to begin work this year on a consortium commission of 25 of the best saxophonists in the world spearheaded by the Amazing collaborative pianist Liz Ames on a follow-up work, to be completed 15 Years after Tim’s incredible World Premiere performance.

I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime: Thank you Tim, Kathryn, Liz and all Saxophonists everywhere!