Instrumentation: saxophone octet (SSAATTBB)

Duration: 3’40”

Premiere: Portland Saxophone Ensemble @ Chamber Music Northwest 2024 Summer Festival, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, July 18th 2024

Program notes

Romp (noun)

high-spirited, carefree, and boisterous play

Romp embodies the tremendous energy and creativity of children at play during long days of summer sunshine. The core material of Romp originally made up the central movement of my saxophone ensemble After the Bell but I always thought with a bit of tinkering it could stand on its own. Here is that tinkered-with version, given the frame of a new introduction and rousing ending.

From the program notes to the original music, subtitled “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.