Klarinet Archive - Posting 000023.txt from 1995/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Remarkable musical event
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 1995 10:25:40 -0500

I have never posted on this board anything related to saxophone topics,
but this one is so remarkable (and so very applicable to clarinet or,
for that matter, any instrument) that it is worth noting.

In the NY Times of Sat., Dec. 2 (West Coast Edition) there is an article
describing the upcoming world premieres of a new saxophone composition
by John Harbison. You will note that the previous sentence has the
word "premieres" in plural. It is not a typo. It's deliberate.

Now any premiere of a work by Harbison is worth nothing because I believe
him to be a composer of considerable substance but this issue is really
unrelated to him. The premiere will be done simultaneously by 43
saxophonists in 43 locations in the United States as well as 9 saxophonists
in 9 locations outside of the United States including the Netherlands,
France, Switzerland, Cyprus, and Singapore.

The object of the exercize is this: normally a work is premiered and
then its success is left to chance. Most don't make it because of
lack of exposure or any of a dozen different reasons. The bottom line
is that it is difficult to get even a major work performed once.

Following the 43 plus 9 simultaneous world premieres, the work will
be performed by an additional 26 saxophonists in other locales including
Monticello, Arkansas and Taipei, Taiwan. That will be a total of 69
performances of a contemporary work in just a few weeks. That is more
performances than most contemporary works get in their lifetimes.

The project was the brainchild of Boston-based Kenneth Radnofsky, who
is a classical saxophonist. He found the "World-Wide Concurrent
Premieres and Commissioning Fund," which is a not-for profit corporation.

I think this to me a most remarkable event!!! And my only grievance is
that a saxophonist rather than a clarinetist conceived it. But we are
sort of first cousins, so by admiring them, I admire us.

Interestingly, Radnofsky proposed that 100 saxophonists do this thing
and each player would contribute $250. In return each would receive
a limited edition of the score autographed by Harbison and each would
then have the right to a premiere performance of the work on the
official premiere day. Obviously, less than 100 signed up, but it is
still tremendously exciting.

The remainder of the article talks about the origin of the saxophone
and how this work fits into it history. But I would prefer to think
of this entire effort as a major change of direction for
the presentation of new music, not
a particularly saxophony event (no pun is intended - what is the
adjective form of the word "saxophone"?).

Isnt't this remarkable?

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================