Three Improvisations
By Phil Woods

The first movement is headed 'Presto'. It has some improv sections for the tenor and alto or soprano. It acts as an intro to the other 2 movements, with many of the ideas reappearing for most of the remainder of the piece. This is followed by a slow, meditative movement...

featuring the alto and baritone saxophones. The baritone solo is almost entirely in the upper range of the instrument. The final movement is very fast with many meter changes. Towards the end of the movement, there is a fiercely atonal section that seems to allude to the saxophone quartet written by another composer Lukas Foss. It ends with a cadenza originally heard in the 1st movement by the alto while the others hold until the alto lands on the final note, where the rest of the ensemble resolves. The Zagreb Saxaphone Quartet has a pretty good recording of the 1st movement on their website and the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet has probably the best recordings of the 2nd and 3rd movements.

This piece is by far the best advanced ensemble I've ever seen or heard. I 1st heard the 2nd and 3rd movements from a CD of the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet (which is by far the best recording our there). All of the music is very free form. There...

are lots of tempo, style, and meter changes and has no definite key signature in many places. It incorporates some improv sections and is really an intro to the next 2. The 2nd is pretty slow. It has some really great parts all throughout. The highlight is a bari sax solo which is written mostly up in the highest notes in the normal range. It has a very creepy feel to it, but it is still very enjoyable. The 3rd is the fastest (based on note density). By far the most technical. All parts get complicated and very important parts all throughout. It ends with an awesome little cadenza for the alto. For an advanced ensemble with a lot of experience playing together, I 100% recommend this piece.