Dragon
alto sax
Program Note:
Dragon is dedicated to SAXIMUS
Biography
Joseph Waters (b. 1952) is a member of the first generation of American classical composers who grew up playing in rock bands.
Throughout his career he has been intrigued by the confluence and tensions that entangle and bind the music of Europe and Africa.
His interests include physiological, sub-cultural pattern seeking mechanisms and development of fractal cognitive models
for understanding pattern recognition. Much of his work involves interactions between electronic and acoustic instruments.
He is the founder of NWEAMO (New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization).
Each October the NWEAMO Festival travels between Mexico City, San Diego, Portland and New York City, presenting composers from around the world in
concerts that unite the worlds of avant-garde classical and experimental electronica.
He also performs and composes for the Waters_Bluestone_Duel, a collaboration with percussionist Joel Bluestone
that explores the combination of live electronics and percussion, as well as SWARMIUS the virtuoso interdisciplinary quartet in residence at San Diego State University.
He studied composition at Yale University, the Universities of Oregon and Minnesota, and Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut.
Primary teachers were Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds, Dominick Argento, and Martin Bresnick. © 2011 Joseph Martin Waters
— Solo Alto Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra with live Electronics —
Full Instrumentation:
vln
perc. (xylophone, vibraphone, tubular bells)
perc. (trap set, glockenspiel)
harp
banjo-mandlin-ukelele (one player)
13 part handbell choir
tuba
alto melodica
bass melodica
vocal beat-boxer
laptop
(may also be performed as 1) alto sax plus electronics; 2) alto sax, perc., laptop; 3) alto sax, violin, 2 perc., laptop)
Voice House Publishing
$200.00
Solo Sax with electronics version available from
Radnofsky-Couper Editions
$34.95
Dragon was composed for
SWARMIUS
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Dragon (Premier Feb, 2011)
Dragon - (2011) began with a request from SAXIMUS for a work inspired by J-Pop (Japanese Pop).
Careful listening & observing SAXIMUS playing Super Mario Brothers, where a tenacious low-res avatar enthusiastically leaps & summersaults on a mission to what?....
led to the creation of this soundtrack to an imaginary video game, interlaced with the voices of Charlie Parker,
Lady Gaga, Gershwin and Koji Kondo, Japanese composer who created the soundtracks to Super Mario Brothers & many other classic Japanese video games.
Joseph Martin Waters, Feb. 1, 2011
www.josephwaters.com
All Rights Reserved
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