Dorothy Chang • New Stories (2013)
Leoš Janáček • Pohádka (1910), arr. Paul Nason
Fernande Decruck • Sonata in C-sharp for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1943)
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate • Snake Oil (2018)
Tale Still Told explores the influences of traditional folk music in classical saxophone repertoire. The composers featured here demonstrate the limitless adaptability of folk music as they incorporate its elements into their personal musical languages.
Carolyn Braus and Molly Orlando perform works for alto saxophone and piano by Dorothy Chang and Fernande Decruck, as well as Leoš Janáček’s beloved piece for cello and piano Pohádka, recorded here as a new arrangement for baritone saxophone and piano. The duo is then joined by cellist Devree Lewis to perform Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s trio Snake Oil, a compelling showcase of the wide spectrum of textures and colors that is possible with this instrumentation.
Rather than an art set in stone, folk music is dynamic; it lives and evolves along with the people whose story it tells, and its power—as these works illustrate—resides in the still telling.
Liner Notes:
The works presented on this album are all strongly influenced by traditional folk music.
Dorothy Chang (b. 1970) is a Professor of Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. In her piece New Stories, Chang uses an all-embracing approach to composition, combining all of her musical influences as a second-generation Chinese American who has lived in both North America and Asia. Chang has called New Stories her most overt reference to traditional Chinese music in a piece that does not involve Chinese instruments.
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) was an early ethnomusicologist who collected thousands of folk songs from his native Moravia. By the time he wrote Pohádka (composed for cello and piano in 1910), Janáček no longer quoted folk melodies within his works; rather, the Moravian folk style had become woven into the fabric of his musical language. Saxophonist Paul Nason arranged the work for baritone saxophone and piano in 2011.
Fernande Decruck (1896–1954) was born in Gaillac, a town in southern France, and her Sonata in C sharp contains quotations of French folk melodies. The main theme of the sonata’s second movement is based on the French carol “Noël Nouvelet,” and the third movement contains motives resembling the French children’s song “Ainsi Font, Font, Font.”
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (b. 1968) is a Chickasaw classical composer who is trained in the Western classical tradition and incorporates American Indian elements or subjects into all of his works. Snake Oil (for saxophone, cello, and piano) contains numerous quotations of Chickasaw melodies and focuses on one of the significant figures in Chickasaw folklore, the snake or sinti’. The work was commissioned by saxophonist Justin Rollefson and his trio Zinnia.
Detailed information about these works may be found in Carolyn’s doctoral dissertation “Traditional Folk Music Influences in Classical Saxophone Repertoire: 1910–2018,” available online at both ProQuest and the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).