Birdsong (score & parts)
Percussion Ensemble - Sheet Music

Percussion Ensemble Alto Saxophone & Marimba (alto saxophone, marimba (4.5-octave)) - medium

SKU: CN.09290

Composed by Scott Harding. Score & parts. Duration 10:45. Published by C. Alan Publications (CN.09290).

Inspired by the image of a wild-looking cockatoo rising, phoenix-like, from the bell of a saxophone, this 3-movement work for alto sax and marimba perfectly captures the diverse personalities of such a creature.

Birdsong was commissioned by my good friend Josh Thomas, an alto saxophonist in the United States Coast Guard Band. Josh has this crazy poster his mother drew sometime in the early 1970's: it's very colorful, and in it, a wild-looking cockatoo is rising, phoenix-like, from the bell of a saxophone played by a jazzy musician. Josh told me that he's always wanted a piece written about that poster, and after I saw it I immediately heard in my mind the screeching sound that would issue forth from the bird's mouth. The faux-cleverness of each movement's title was born out of that screeching sound from Mvt. 3: the bird soars on high, crying out in search of food wriggling far below. (I understand that birds don't soar in search of worms, they would, say, rabbits, but never mind.) Working backwards then, is Mvt. 2: the notion of kill here is implied in the slow, funeral march in an updated New Orleans style, complete with 12-bar blues as the form. Mvt. 1, Birds of a Feather, takes its turn from the togetherness of the sax and marimba flocking in a modified 2-voice fugue.