Instrumentation: saxophone ensemble (SSAATTBB+Bass Sax)

Duration: 8’

Premiere: University of Oregon Saxophone Ensemble @ Aasen-Hull Hall, June 5th 2024

Program notes

Breathe Set Play is many things. In multiple ways, it resembles the more familiar "Ready. Set. Go." It is a mantra for beginning saxophonists to recall the proper sequence for starting a note—take in air, set the embouchure (mouth) around the mouthpiece, let the borrowed air flow. It is a series of steps one undergoes to achieve a desired state or outcome. In this piece, play is that sought state—a sense of exploration, discovery, and wonder where time disappears. Breathe, set, and play describe the quality of the three musical ideas that make up the piece: the first a patient, onomatopoeic representation of breathing with slowly changing and expanding chords as breathing and awareness deepens; the second a brimming energy to be bridled, directed, and unleashed; the third a floating state of flow that accompanies us in our play and our best moments, beginning as wandering exploration, something clicking and catching, a discovery made, bringing a sense of wonder, joy, and tenderness.

Written for the Portland Saxophone Ensemble