This past weekend I was in Kamloops, nestled in British Columbia’s Thompson Valley, for another outing of my alto saxophone concerto Brazen, with soloist Julia Nolan and the Kamloops Symphony, conducted by Bruce Dunn. The KSO is one of the many regional orchestras that are such an important part of their communities, and do their solid and often adventurous work a bit under the national cultural radar. The KSO had commissioned Map of the City/Map of the World not long after I’d moved to the west coast, and programmed The Art of Declension a few years later. So I was excited to return to Kamloops for another performance.
Though Julia and I both live in Vancouver, our collaboration on Brazen began, of all places, backstage at the Poly Theatre in Beijing, China. I was with the Vancouver Symphony on its 2008 Asia tour, which included the first piece I wrote during my VSO residency, The Linearity of Light. As it happened, the presenter in Beijing had requested a programme change because the tour piece had recently been played at that same hall, and the piece that replaced it required saxophone, so Julia was flown in specifically for the Beijing concert. She and I were hanging about backstage during the concerto part of the programme, my piece having just been played, she awaiting the second half.
Julia: “So have you written anything for saxophone?”
Me: “Well, actually the alto saxophone was my instrument in high school, but professionally, I’ve never been asked to.”
Julia: “Would you like to?”
Sometimes commissions start out as simply as that.
When an orchestra commissions a piece, it automatically comes with a performance plan. But when a soloist commissions a concerto, it’s a little different, because the soloist can’t put on the concert alone! So we contacted a number of orchestras to see what interest there was, to bolster our (eventually successful) application to the BC Arts Council. Happily, Vancouver, Victoria and Kamloops all expressed interest in the piece. The Vancouver Symphony premiered it in April 2012, with the Victoria Symphony performing it a couple of weeks later. Now, Kamloops was up to bat, and for the first time the piece would get multiple performances, in Salmon Arm and Kamloops.
Before I wrote the piece, I had had “Brazen” on my List of Potential Titles for quite a while. This was the perfect project for it, because “brazen” means “made of brass” (which is what the alto saxophone is) but also “bold and shameless” which I thought made a great premise for the character of the music and especially the solo.
One day while I was pondering this piece, I found myself on a plane, and All About Eve, a delicious film from 1950 starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, was on the in-flight entertainment. I’d seen it before, but it’s one of those films that keeps on giving, and as I watched it again, I was struck by how Eve Harrington, conniving to usurp Margo Channing’s success as a Broadway actress, could be called “brazen”. But I also thought that Eve got a pretty bum deal in the movie, because we only know about her actions by what others say about her—we really never learn about Eve from her own perspective. So I wanted to write a piece that embraced the idea of going after what one wants, of being determined and focussed, of having a vision and a goal, even though the path to success might not always be easy and people might talk about you behind your back. Julia was on board, and we were off.
One of the things that I like to do as a composer is explore interesting and evocative colours, and to expand the palette of sounds available in a given ensemble. In Brazen, the ensemble is string orchestra and percussion. The percussion instruments are all metallic, in keeping with the metal theme (including cowbell, for there can never be enough cowbell). As for the strings, they make a lot of great sounds and effects and colours already, but I had the opening gesture in my imagination for a very long time before I put a single note down on paper—and it involved them doing something a little unusual. I wanted the piece to start with a burst of determined energy, sprinting off into the race to the finish line, and I needed to create the effect of being out of breath from the exertion. So I asked the string players to exhale in rhythm, like panting, or like “fire breathing” in yoga. So that no one hyperventilated, I wrote it antiphonally, so that the breath passes back and forth across the orchestra. As a wind player from long ago, a nice loud diaphragmatic exhale in rhythm is no problem, but it turns out that’s tricky for string players, who don’t really ever have to think about breathing! But the KSO players dove in, and it made for an effectively unexpected way to open Brazen‘s starting gate.
Concertos are usually put together in one rehearsal, and this was no exception. But professional musicians are an amazing lot. They show up with their parts practised, and they learn very quickly how their part fits in with everyone else’s. So even though they may only hear all the parts together for the first time the day before the concert, it comes together incredibly fast, and by the dress rehearsal, it’s all there.
Before we headed to Salmon Arm for the first concert, Julia and I did an interview on local TV station CFJC‘s Midday Show, which was a lot of fun. Then it was a dash to the bus to Salmon Arm for the dress rehearsal and first concert. The volunteers in Salmon Arm gave us a warm welcome (and a scrumptious homemade dinner), the orchestra sounded rich in the hall, and the Salmon Arm audience gave a great response to the piece.
Next day, concert #2, back in Kamloops. What a great show! The orchestra was excellent throughout, and the audience gave Julia and Brazen a standing ovation. We’ll drink to that!
And as a bonus, at the post-concert reception in the lobby, I got to have one of those very-21st-century experiences: I got to meet in person someone I follow on Twitter.
Very big thanks to music director Bruce Dunn and everyone at the Kamloops Symphony for supporting Brazen with these performances. It was a treat to be part of it all and I hope I’ll be back again sometime soon. Meanwhile, all of you reading this: go hear your local orchestra!
Leave A Comment