Back in April I heard and/or read the word “xeriscaping” and found the concept and the word fascinating. Xeriscaping is gardening that does not require irrigation, so it consists of plants like cacti and succulents, as well as lots of rocks and gravel.
Also, it just sounds cool. Sometimes, that’s enough, and yours portly wrote an odd piece inspired by the concept.
Pickup my newest release: Leftovers IV!
Want to play the real sax? Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.
Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive. To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more. For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.
I’m continuing to dig up ancient MIDI compositions (now converted to glorious, lossless WAV files) from twenty years ago (give or take). This weekend I’m sharing some digital saxophone compositions with readers.
I probably intended these pieces to be played by an actual saxophone quartet/quintet/sextet at some point. I played in a saxophone quintet in high school (two altos, two tenors, one bari) and a saxophone sextet in college (I can’t recall the exact instrumentation, but I think it had soprano, two altos, two tenors, and one bari), so I did quite a bit of arranging and composing for those groups. I also arranged a ton for Brass to the Future, the brass quintet (with saxophone) that my brother and I played in for a number of years in the early 2010s.
Now they exist as ghostly digital instruments, honking and squawking through the musical musings of a plump young Portly with a head full of dreams and a belly full of Cheez-Its.
I’m not sure what the original title for this piece was meant to be, but I do remember wanting to emulate the sound and rhythms of a 1970s classic rock organ in the context of a saxophone ensemble. “Saxophonic Organ” is the result of that experimentation, and I rather like it.
To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.
The Portly Politico 