Music

Illuminations (2004)
for alto saxophone and piano

Download: mp3 ( mm. 1-152, 6.2 MB, 6:12 of 15:02)
Format: mp3, 128 kbs, 44.1kHz, joint-stereo

Clifford Leaman, alto saxophone
Derek Parsons, piano

The work's title is derived from a collection of poems by French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891). Illuminations explores sonically the colorful imagery of "Métropolitan," one of the many delightfully evocative poems found in Rimbaud's Illuminations. Illuminations, such as the Metz Pontifical illumination (right),* are elaborate colored engravings used to decorate a text

Illuminations (2004) was commissioned by the Ambassador Duo: Clifford Leaman, saxophone, and Derek Parsons, piano. The world premiere was given at the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Biennial Conference in April of 2004. Illuminations was featured in August of that same year at the Yantai International Winds Festival in China in August, and commercially released in 2005 as the title track of the Ambassador Duo's album Illuminations (Equilibrium, EQ 77).

More about Illuminations

Selected passages from Rimbaud's "Métropolitan," were chosen to serve as a source of inspiration for the various passages of the work. This process of free association of musical material with selected poetic imagery is called word painting. To demonstrate my approach, excerpts form Louise Varèse's translation of the poem** are presented below alongside recordings of the corresponding passages. The recordings are from the NASA premiere.

Entering in m. 38 after the long solo piano introduction, the simple 5-note theme presented in the saxophone,

and its piano accompaniment, were inspired by the following selection:

“From the indigo straits to the seas of Ossian, on the rose and orange sands which have been washed by the wine-coloured sky, crystal boulevards have just arisen…” { mm. 35-59, mp3, 1.9 MB, 1:42 }

The frenetic passages, which feature percussive chords and repeated low tone clusters in the piano, were inspired by following passage:

“Flying from the bituminous desert, flying in a disordered rout with masses of shifting fog surging hideously towards a bending, changing sky (a sky formed of the black sinister vapour which the mourning ocean breathes out)…” {mm. 106-119, mp3, 288 KB, :14 }

The image of a ‘bending, changing sky’ (see above) inspired the saxophone’s portamenti-laced theme which enters for the first time about three and a half minutes into the work. { mm. 245-263, mp3, 468K, :23 }

Its accompaniment was inspired by the following selection:

“Raise your head; see this arched wooden bridge; these last few kitchen gardens; these coloured mask lighted up by the lamp which the cold night lashes…” { mm. 60-72, mp3, 904 KB, :45 }

 

References

* - Click here to learn more about the Fitzwilliam Museum's Metz Pontifical illumination.

** - Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations, Translated by Louise Varèse (New York: New Directions, 1946).

Links

'Rimbaud, Arthur,' in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.