Intermezzo 

Program Notes

When Alan Durst was a graduate student at UCLA, he heard a piece of mine, Twilight from The Hall of Mirrors. He liked it enough that he asked me if I might write a piece for saxophone for his DMA recital.  I have long had a love for the saxophone and had written for it in chamber and large ensembles many times, but had not yet written any solo works for the instrument, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to write a piece that would focus on it.

Intermezzo is a rather melancholy piece which capitalizes on the lyrical and expressive nature of the saxophone.  In this piece, its mournful voice seems to be in odd contrast to the piano, which is often very active, but the two instruments together really act as a single, complex voice.

Alan Durst premiered the piece on his DMA recital in 2003, and Doug Masek and Louise Thomas recorded it on Doug’s CD Eclectsax, released in 2008.