Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web.
Each December, Maslanka Weekly will feature the best performances of David’s most popular works that were uploaded to the web that calendar year. This December, we will feature the best performances uploaded to the web in 2019, highlighting a different work each week. We continue this week by showcasing five extraordinary performances of Recitation Book from 2019.
Recitation Book
From David Maslanka’s original Program Note:
I have loved Italian madrigals since my student days. Recitation Book for saxophone quartet feels something like a madrigal collection, but with a grand finale. My approach to composing is vocal, and the singing quality of saxophones is one of their finest strengths. The movements in this piece are relatively brief and intimate songs.
Much of my recent music draws its inspiration from the distant past. An old melody pushes open a door in my mind and a parallel world or dream makes its way out. Each piece in this set found its inspiration in that way.
The title, “Recitation Book,” implies a set of lessons. I don’t want to say explicitly what each “lesson” means, but the titles of the pieces circle around the theme of death, which for me implies the passing of the old, and the coming of the new.
I have not only quoted a number of old melodies in Recitation Book, but two whole brief pieces as well. This first is J.S. Bach’s four-part chorale Jesu, meine Freude, and the second is an arrangement for the four saxophones of the five-voiced madrigal Ecco, morirò dunque by Gesualdo di Venosa.
Watch below as the S. With Saxophone Quartet gives a performance from July 4, 2019.
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Watch below as the Saxiba Saxophone Ensemble gives a performance from December 21, 2019.
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Watch below as Quartet 321 gives a performance from June 6, 2019.
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Watch below as the Aruna Saxophone Quartet gives a performance from September 26, 2019.
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Watch below as the Fuego Saxophone Quartet gives a performance from their new CD release, Migration.
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For more information on Recitation Book, please visit Recitation Book @ davidmaslanka.com
We would love to hear from you! If you know of any outstanding performances of David Maslanka’s music on the web, please email us at maslankaweekly@maslanka.org.
