Instrumentation: saxophone octet (SSAATTBB)

Duration: 11’30”

Premiere: Portland Saxophone Ensemble @ Chamber Music Northwest 2023 Summer Festival Finale—Reser Auditorium Plaza (July 2023)

Program notes

After the Bell was written following a particularly productive rehearsal of the Portland Saxophone Ensemble where a few weeks' worth of work the group put in finally clicked and there was suddenly a big change in the ensemble sound and cohesiveness. I wanted to capture the moment of optimism and excitement I felt—about the music we were making, about the ensemble's new beginning after shuttering in 2020 due to the pandemic, about emerging from the pandemic more broadly. And I wanted to write something everyone would be excited to play. Originally written without a program, as we prepared the music and premiered it, I noticed the music evoked specific moments in my childhood, moments as experienced through a child’s eyes, not as viewed through an adult’s memory—which is to say the music isn’t only light and playful as I feel adults often choose to render it; it’s also heavy and complex and freighted with significance and strong feelings. Five sections continuous make up the piece, each with a distinct flavor:

I. THE BELL
Begins with a huge building up of anticipation for the moment when school is out for the last time of the year. A sense of open air possibility and triumph.

II. ROAD TRIP
A gentle rolling and forward-moving feeling, traveling somewhere far, vistas unfolding out the window, with the occasional backseat bickering between siblings.

III. CUL-DE-SAC
The cul-de-sac is ground zero for summertime play—kickball, capture the flag, gathering for a bike ride or a squirt gun fight. The music is cast in a scherzo, rambunctious and dynamic with the fabled “big kids” making an appearance in the trio. Toward the end, the roughhousing goes over the top and the the play suddenly ends.

IV. LATE AUGUST EVENING
Feelings about summer coming to a close slide into realizing that time is passing in general, childhood won’t last—an intense bittersweetness at the climax.

V. THE DAY BEFORE
A last summer morning that starts slowly, gathers steam, and erupts into music reminiscent of the opening fanfare. The piece ends somewhat quietly, but not before wisps of memories from the rest of summer march by in a sonorous mash up.

Written for the Portland Saxophone Ensemble