The Michiana Solo Saxophone Series
I often find that when something makes me smile it also makes me sad. Lately, I have been focusing on finding emotional references for my work that feel important to me. I have had many happy times in my life, but few are as important to me as the ones that have immediately filled me with joyful melancholy (for lack of a better term).
Michiana is a small beach town situated on the boarder between the states of Michigan and Indiana. The Michiana solo saxophone pieces are a collection of melodies and structures I have composed with memories of Michiana as references. In exploring my childhood experiences at this beach town, I was overtaken with the desire to contextualize the way I felt. The powerful nostalgia that I feel when I look back on these moments in my life is a wonderful place from which to draw musical ideas.
Interestingly, it is the nostalgia itself that I feel a need to explore, and not the memories that cause it. I am a very nostalgic person. I think it is big part of who I am, how I look at the world. I believe in leading a life that is very cognizant of the past and its relationship to the present. The music I am writing for this project is about the way I feel as I remember, and not the memories themselves. I hope that makes sense.
The compositions presented for this project utilize melody in conjunction with shifts in tonal color and noise techniques to paint a landscape of joyful melancholy. The music is heavily influenced by archival recordings of American folk music as well as the work of Joanna Newsom, Jose Gonzalez, Devendra Banhart, and Bill Callahan. I believe that by arranging this music for solo saxophone, I can highlight the emotional qualities that I find so striking in these musicians’ compositions and that I hope to create in my own.
I am very excited to be debuting the project at The Local 269 on March 30th. I hope you will join me in seeing how it works out.
Tags: Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Jose Gonzalez, joyful melancholy, melody, Michiana Solo Saxophone Project, Performing Instrumental Music
March 3rd, 2011 at 12:43 pm
You’ve really pinpointed the emotion of “joyful melancholy” in your writing, and I suspect that the music conveys this feeling as well. Expressing this feeling with a single solo instrument makes so much sense, since it is such a personal experience. Really looking forward to seeing this show!