Sunday morning I jotted down another chorale—I’ve been on a chorale kick lately—and decided to experiment with 9/4 time. I really just wanted to see how composing for longer measures might affect the final product. I did find that my “grammar” changed a bit while composing in this unorthodox time signature, with more subdivisions of three popping up.
I exported the WAV from Noteflight and imported it into Audacity. There I applied a “Large Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect; and a “Lush High-Ends” master effect.
“Chorale for Single Reeds” is a brief chorale in 9/4 for a trio of soprano sax, clarinet, and bass clarinet. A clarinet or tenor saxophone can also be substituted for the soprano sax part, and the instruments can switch freely between the three parts.
The chorale is designed to improve breath control, counting, and balance. The dynamics lean towards softer tones, with a demanding decrescendo at the end. This piece also improves embouchure and “chops.”
Sheet music is available for purchase (and you can screenshot it and copy-paste it into MS Paint like a cheapskate) at the following online retailers:
- Noteflight: https://www.noteflight.com/music/titles/1f53be20-0194-4649-8ec8-be4a309b5b61/chorale-for-single-reeds
- Sheet Music Plus: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/chorale-for-single-reeds-23846132.html
Here’s the original manuscript:
And here’s a PDF of the final version (so you can just download that instead of using the MS Paint screenshot technique):
What do you think of this—yet another—chorale? Does it sing like the angels on High? Or is it another example of self-indulgent twiddle-twaddle from America’s portliest composer?
Let me know in the comments!
—TPP