sax concerto

This is an excerpt from my recently completed Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble, written for Nick May and a consortium led by the Eastern Wind Symphony and their music director, Todd Nichols. Below are the current commissioners. There is limited space to join the consortium for this work. If you are interested in joining, please contact Nick May at https://www.nickmaysax.com/tyler-harrison.

Todd Nichols–Eastern Wind Symphony

Jason Noble–Columbia University Wind Ensemble

Wesley J. Broadnax–University of Northern Colorado Wind Ensemble

John Carmichael–Pinnacle Winds

Nathan Stark–Montana State University Wind Symphony

Reed Thomas–Middle Tennessee State University Wind Ensemble

Justin J. Conley-Reyes

Christopher Woodruff–California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Wind Ensemble 

PROGRAM NOTES

Nick May and I first collaborated on my saxophone sonata, Through Every Closet Door, completed in May 2024. Nick proceeded to play this incredibly difficult sonata all over the US, and I realized then I could not have asked for a better collaborator, champion, and friend. After the sonata, we began to talk about a concerto, which was the impetus for this project. 

In creating this concerto, my sole aim was to compose one of the most difficult concertos for soprano saxophone in the repertoire to put Nick’s exceptional virtuosity on fervid display. My music is difficult and complex, and it fits Nick’s playing like a glove. At every turn, he rises to the challenge. When many players would tell me no, he tells me yes. This concerto would not exist without him. 

My concerto is in a four-movement form played attaca without interruption. The slow first movement was written in Montana, a beautiful home atop a mountain in Utah, and on Fire Island in New York. The view of the sunsets over the Great Salt Lake and the bay on Fire Island inspired the opening percussion section, which depicts light reflecting on the ocean and the lake at sunrise and sunset. The movement is slow and melodic, and the melodies are inspired by the mountains in Montana and Utah. It introduces the main theme and several related motives that are the key foundations of the concerto. The cadenza at the end includes an optional improvisation for the soloist. 

The second movement was written in a home in Brentwood, Maryland, which is right on the border of Washington, DC. The movement is gritty and energetic, and it is a true reflection of the energy and stress of city life. The climactic point pins the soloist against the other soprano saxophone in the wind ensemble, and later, against all the saxophones in the ensemble. The screams of saxophones and brass fade, ushering in the next movement. 

The third movement is a cadenza in four parts: the fast opening, a trio with the saxophones in the ensemble, a slow section, and a transition into the finale. The opening phases out the themes from the second movement, followed by a restatement of the main theme in the form of a trio. The tops two voices of the trio are a canon at the unison, while the bottom voice is the theme in prolation. The slow section offers a final reprieve in the texture, before transitioning into the fast finale. 

The finale is a five-part rondo (ABACA). Each A section is varied, while the C section is a loose inversion of the B section. The movement transitions between Bb minor and B minor. It begins and ends with the introductory scalar motives that are frequently present throughout the movement, representing the feeling of the wind on a beach or in the mountains. The work ends with a high C# / C in the saxophone and a triumphant Bb major chord, leaving the soloist to sing out after the cadence.