[barefootsax]

I am beginning to settle on a topic for my thesis paper. I am planning on most of you to help get me some resources. I plan on writing my paper on late 20th to 21st century Saxophone performance practices regarding classical music. A big focus will be on Saxophone with Electronic medium.
Does this sound intersting?

 

[hakukani]

It's a thesis--it's not supposed to be interesting...

Actually, it sounds interesting. If I may suggest, I would contact John Sampen at Bowling Green. I believe he's played/commissioned quite a few pieces that use electronica.

 

[Martinman]

I have only heard one classical song with electronica (a Dr. Beat no less, it also featured a guy playing about 5 different notes on a piano) but it was really cool.

 

[vivace1]

Not sure what direction you would take with this, but, I would use a reference source on sax/electronic pieces. I'd like to perform a sax with tape piece for my next recital but am a little unsure of some good beginning pieces for this. Wish I could remember the guy's name but I heard a player from Germany (I want to say the prof at the university in Stuttgart) anyway he performed with a guy mixing his sounds live. The sax player was using pedals to sample his own playing and the mixer in the back would layer them on top of his live playing. Lots of directional speaker use (fading between left and right channels etc) very wild stuff.
Seems like a lot of the great contemporary electronic/sax pieces don't make it to a publisher so once they're performed they disappear. Someone's got to preserve and promote this stuff! I hope you go with this topic.

 

[barefootsax]

I am getting good responses with this, I will be sure to share some of my research with the forum!!
Keep it going!

 

[barefootsax]

If you have any resources please let me know as well!

Thanks

 

[Dr G]

What level thesis is this - masters degree?

 

[barefootsax]

Yes, this is for a Masters, I'm doing my masters in performance.

 

[barefootsax]

Surely, there have been 161 views up to this point, some one has to have an opinion about this.
thanks

 

[thejoyofsax]

It does sound like an interesting topic, but I'm wondering if you'll have enough resources to construct an entire thesis project. I'm aware of the Jacob ter Veldhuis compositions, but I suppose I'm a little in the dark about the volume of pieces in the sax/electronic medium. Hundreds of them probably, but all worth writing about?

 

[hakukani]

I wrote one in 1985, for sax and tape. It was performed once, and the master tape developed a bad case of oxide shed in the mid 90s.

No great loss, probably.

 

[barefootsax]

I will not be writing about all of them, the Veldhuis compositions, yes, but there are more pieces than I can count, I prefer ones that use more sysntesized sounds vs. vocal effects, Albiet I still like those as well. When My paper is done with I may only have about five compositions that I do in depth research on, but I would like to compile a list of these compositions. In the end there will be a Cd recorded as well, not as part of my paper, but as part of my research!

 

[vivace1]

I went looking for the German saxophonist I mentioned earlier, but couldn't find him. I'll have to ask around the department. In the process I found a program Brian Sacawa performed of Electronic/Sax pieces:

http://tdpmusic.com/jump/ProgramYamahaNY07.pdf

 

[vivace1]

http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/mauk/Saxproject.htm

I used this resource for my master's defense. Anthony Balester compiled this list of contemporary works. Very useful to me.

 

[Jolle]

If it's your thesis, the question is not if we find it interesting. It can be the most boring thesis of the century. It can be a highlight in the history of American Education. It all depends on how you work it out.

The most important question is if you find it interesting enough to share with the people. If so, go ahead.

One nice idea might to incorporate the early electronic instruments, like the theremin. One group that plays with a combination of theremin and sax is Reductio ad Absurdum (http://www.myspace.com/reductioadabsurdum)

Angelo Moore, frontman of Fishbone, is also playing with that theremin and sax.

More interesting is the mentioning of the use of theremin in a Overture of Jean Rivier played at a Cleveland Orchestra concert in 1929. This Overture is said to contain sax as well.

http://www.classicsax.com/asi/vsr8.pdf

Just some ideas.