Rosefield Fugue

Saxophone Quartet

Fugue of a Late Night Wanderer

Program note:

Rosefield Fugue began as a walking tune.

Occasionally when I'm out walking by myself I'll find a continuous stream of melodies rolling through my head, and every now and then I'll try to grab one and make sense of it. They're usually pretty hard to pin down, and often all I can capture is a fragment, just a few notes that don't really go anywhere, and so I'll spend the rest of the walk trying to figure out how the melody should end.

But in a fugue, you don't really need to find an ending - you just start your melody, and when you get stuck you simply start it again in another voice, and keep going. I like that.

This fugue doesn't really end. It just drifts away.

Rosefield Fugue is dedicated to the Rhapsodie Saxophone Quartet.

© David John Lang 2014

Rosefield Fugue was premiered in 2015 by Rhapsodie Saxophone Quartet (Sarah Byron, Nikki Sanders, Rhiannon Trimby and Kate Flint) at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Duration: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Advanced

Instrumentation

Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone