It’s been a Chapel-filled week here on the blog, so I’m dashing off this quick Lazy Sunday before dashing off to play bass at church:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
I was working on an alto saxophone arrangement of the hymn “Softly and Tenderly” by Will L. Thompson last week, as I am planning on playing it for Chapel this week at school. I’ve always liked the hymn, and I recently attempted it on sax for a Sunday night singing at my old church. While playing it, I realized I was unclear one some of the notes in the melody, so there was a chunk where I was kind of adlibbing my way through.
That being the case, I thought it would be worthwhile to have a version for alto sax as sheet music. This arrangement is really more of a transcription; that is, I attempted to put on paper what I play when I am noodling the hymn on sax. I tried to replicate the various ornamentations that I add on when I play.
Once I had the transcription I wanted, I didn’t grab my alto sax right away. Instead, I grabbed my bass! I played bass with our new church’s praise band for the first time this past Sunday, and I needed to practice some of the pieces for service. Since I had the bass out anyway, I decided to play the alto sax arrangement on the bass!
The result is the feature of today’s post. The typical key for “Softly and Tenderly” is concert Ab major. That puts it in the key of F major for an alto saxophone (for transposing reasons I won’t explain here, because while I think it’s cool, it’s also kind of tedious and boring). So, by playing on the bass (which I think of a concert-pitch instrument, but which technically transposes everything down one octave), I was shifting the key to concert F major (meaning if I played it with a pianist, the pianist would have to play in F major, not Ab major).
See? Kind of tedious. The bass rendition, however, is not:
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Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That promo code is also good for everything on the site, so my full discography is under $10.
A couple of my blogger buddies very kind wrote little blurbs about Koi Dance, so I thought I’d share them today:
Legendary blogger Roman of Opium Tales has also graciously agreed to review the album, so stay tuned!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (that promo code is also good for everything on the site).
As such, I’m featuring some posts related to Koi Dance (and the title track, “Koi Dance”):
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Yours portly hasn’t had a chance to noodle out any more new saxophone compositions or to tinker with new digital compositions, so I’m digging up a little something I put together last year and waited until Sunday—the first day of summer—to upload.
I recorded this little cover of the jazz standard “Summertime” from the opera Porgy and Bess last summer when I was driving up to see then-Dr. Fiancée. On those long, boring drives, I would usually entertain myself by sending her goofy voice messages. These usually hit in the third and final hour of the drive, when I’d be dying to get out of the car and see my girl.
Such is the provenance of this cover, my own little rendition with some altered lyrics.
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I had a gig down in Charleston this past Saturday night. A young man from Connecticut was proposing to his girlfriend (she said yes, by the way), and he’d hired me to play a Lewis Capaldi song before he popped the question. It was a really fun, touching moment, and I’m grateful I could be part of it (he paid me pretty well, too).
In practicing for that little performance, I had fun flipping through my music, and came upon a piano arrangement of Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” that I play on the saxophone. Since I’m playing unaccompanied, I don’t have to transpose the music (saxophone is an Eb instrument, meaning that if an Eb is played on a piano, it’s a C on the saxophone), so I just read the right-hand piano melody straight off the page.
I had fun with this version, which I’m sharing today:
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The siren-song of Old World called heavily to yours portly, luring me with its addictive, “just-one-more-turn” gameplay to crash upon the rocks of sleep deprivation. It’s also drawn me away from artistic pursuits. My plan is to compose at least one, but preferably two, more tracks for Koi Dance, and then I’ll schedule it for a release. Given my recent acquisition of some Japanese Trapdoor Snails, I’m brainstorming a composition about these enigmatic, quiet pond dwellers.
That said, I haven’t composed anything since “Sturgeon,” so I’m featuring an “open mic” mic performance of sorts. The “mic” is my fading second generation iPhone SE; the “adventure” is singing a cappella in my bathroom; the “open[ness]” is my thick, meaty tongue “shalalalalalalalalalala-ing” the riff to The Smashing Pumpkins’ hit “1979”:
Yours portly is continuing to work on his collection of pond-based tunes, Koi Dance. I introduced some rosy red minnows to our koi pond about a month ago, which inspired today’s piece.
I neglected to feature this week’s piece sooner, although it did show up in an addition of Phone it in Friday. Well, better late than never!
The structure of this piece is slightly unusual. It’s a string trio, but the violin doesn’t kick in until the second half of the piece, when it adds harmonies and a countermelody of sorts to the work.
I’m continuing to work on my pond-based pieces, and have a fourth piece completed. This duet incorporates whole tone scales, which possess a mystical, mysterious quality. The piece is broadly in Bb major, but the second and third sections feature some secondary dominants that, at times, push the key closer to D major. The whole tone scales also give a sense of atonality to sections of the piece, representing the mystery of moonlight.
