John D. McDonald

Alto Saxophone and String Quartet

Composer's Note:

These Transcriptions, a set of pieces extracted and expanded from piano miniatures, present three movements that represent differing concerns that involve me as a composer, and which I suspect matter greatly to Kenneth Radnofsky, the work’s distinguished dedicatee. Like Ken, I value the work of the very talented and dedicated students with whom I have made music over the years; Prelude Upon Vigil Chords thus pays homage to my former student Ryan Vigil by borrowing several chords from one of the first pieces he completed while studying with me at Tufts University in the fall of 2002. The piece is tranquil yet sets the stage for what might be called the tragic complaints of the remainder of the work.

Three Desolate Panels is a suite of laments riveted on the perennially tragic problem of economic inequality. Each of the three short pieces (panels) comprising the movement works with its own spare means. Poverty Management and Reduced Circumstances use a mere six pitches each, attempting to illustrate how severe limits might of necessity yield “enough;” the point here is: conserve. Notated Between Crises is simply a dramatic centerpiece dividing the outer two panels; its distinguishing feature is a lengthy unison string passage played under the restraining factor of practice mutes.

Postlude: Sealed Inarticulate Woe takes line 8 from Stevie Smith’s poem “The Abominable Lake” as a cue, concluding Transcriptions in despair.

…Poor world, my heart breaks for your sealed inarticulate woe…

Commissioned by World-Wide Concurrent Premieres and Commissioning Fund, Inc.

Dedicated to Kenneth Radnofsky, with great admiration.