- Source: Saxophone sonata (Creston)
The Sonata for E♭ Alto Saxophone and Piano, Op. 19, was composed by Paul Creston in 1939. The sonata was commissioned in the Spring by Creston's frequent collaborator, the American saxophonist Cecil Leeson, following the success of their previous work on Creston's Suite for Saxophone. By June, Creston had begun composition and presented sketches to Leeson. It was completed by the end of August and slated for publication in 1940, although this date was missed due to logistical challenges brought on by World War II.
The sonata is in three movements and takes around thirteen minutes to perform. Its form follows a traditional, classical-era structure. The first movement is in a modified sonata form with no recapitulation: two themes are introduced in an exposition and extensively developed, before the movement ends with a coda. Harmonically, it is based on seventh chords, with its tonality moving between several tonal centres. A slower middle movement with song-like melodies follows, before the sonata ends with a rhythmically complex rondo featuring polymeters. Altogether, it presents a considerable difficulty for both players.
Creston and Leeson premiered the sonata at the Weill Recital Hall on 15 February 1940, although Leeson had performed it on tour prior to that date. No critics were present at the premiere, but the sonata's debut recording obtained a mixed response. Most found the sonata enjoyable, but criticism was made of a perceived simplistic and salon-like styling. Today, it is broadly seen as a key piece of the classical saxophone's repertoire and is frequently performed. It was the first of Creston's chamber works to be recorded, and had appeared on fourteen records by 1980.
History
= Background
=Paul Creston started composing as a child, but only had his first piece published aged twenty-six. He was autodidactic, having taught himself composition and music theory from library-loaned books. Creston believed that composition was a spiritual act, "just as vital [...] as prayer and good deeds", and thought it shouldn't be restricted to career composers. A recipient of a 1938 Guggenheim Fellowship for composition, part of his wide-ranging output was dedicated to advancing the classical repertoire of little-used instruments, like the saxophone.
In 1934, Creston met Cecil Leeson through the National Music League, an organisation where Creston was an accompanist. Leeson was sponsored by the group and benefitted from their provision of accompanists for his tours. He had recently lost his habitual accompanist, Lois Russell, and was dissatisfied enough with their replacements to beg the league to send "someone who can read". Leeson was presented with Creston: pleased with his playing, the two began a partnership.
Leeson was a crucial figure to the development of the classical saxophone. At that time, the instrument was perceived as suited to less "serious" music and restricted as such. Along with Creston, Leeson worked with Lawson Lunde, Burnet Tuthill and other composers to create a large body of work for the classical saxophone, which includes Creston's suite, sonata and concerto. He was the first saxophonist to perform at New York City's Town Hall on 5 February 1937, accompanied by Creston.
Creston ceased performing regularly with Leeson in March 1937 to focus on composition, but they continued to play occasionally together until 1940. On his relationship with Leeson, Creston retrospectively stated: "Cecil Leeson has been the greatest stimulus for the enrichment of the saxophone repertory, and I am most for having been chosen a contributor to the repertory." He credited Leeson for inspiring his love of the saxophone—which he previously thought of as "ugly [...] with an irritatingly buzzy tone"—as well as the success of his compositions for the instrument.
= Composition and publishing
=At the time Creston composed his sonata, French composers were leading the development of the classical saxophone. The saxophone suffered from a dearth of original concert repertoire: aside from the exceptions of Glazunov's Concerto, Debussy's Rhapsodie and Creston's own Suite, Leesons's recitals of the time were dominated by vocal and string transcriptions.
In Spring 1939, Leeson asked Creston to write a sonata for the saxophone after the success of his suite. He was in the second year of his Guggenheim fellowship, which usually involved a year abroad in Europe, but this was excused due to the political instability caused by the onset of World War II. Although they had ceased regular performances as a duo, Creston accepted the commission following on from the success of his suite: he was told by Henry Moe, an associate of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, that a recording of the suite was key to the granting of his fellowship. Creston had only sketched a few bars when he received a visit from Leeson in June. The sonata was completed a couple of months later while Leeson was teaching at the Interlochen Center for the Arts' National Music Camp, and finalised at a meeting when Leeson came back. He received the score on 28 August, along with an apology from Creston for being unable to practice the accompaniment:
Enclosed is the score and part to my Sonata. I regret that I am unable to prepare the piano part myself right now as I am preparing for a Town Hall recital in October with violinist Rachmael Weinstock in a performance of my Suite for Violin and Piano. I will learn the part after the recital. Enjoy.
The New Music Group were chosen to publish the sonata and intended to do so in late 1940. Due to staffing shortages from World War II conscription, this deadline was missed. After the war, although engraving was already completed, the sonata was instead published by Axelrod Publications and the copyright was assigned to the Templeton Publishing Company. The sonata's publishing rights were acquired by Shawnee Press in 1948. Later, realising its popularity after attending the 1978 Marcel Mule International Saxophone Competition, Creston wrote to Shawnee's president to suggest that the publishers should consider opening a French branch.
= Performances
=A month before its 1940 premiere, Leeson decided to test the sonata's popularity on a multi-state tour with his accompanist Josef Wagner: they first played at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio (9 January), then Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana (11 January) and Wiley High School in Terre Haute, Indiana (15 January). Creston was unaware of these performances, and it was only several decades later he discovered the truth. Despite this, he still considered the New York City performance to be its official premiere.
The sonata was given its official premiere by Creston and Leeson at a New Music Group concert in the Weill Recital Hall on 15 February 1940. Leeson performed the sonata throughout the year, with recitals at St. Vincent's Hall, Elkhart, Indiana (21 April, on his tour with Josef Wagner), and the American Music Festival, New York City, New York (8 May, the last time he would perform with Creston). Creston continued to accompany performances of the sonata into the late 1960s, playing recitals at the State University of New York (22 October 1966, with Frederick Wyman), the New York College of Music (13 November 1966, with Vincent Abato) and the WNYC American Music Festival (13 February 1968, with Abato).
= Reception
=No reviews exist of the sonata's premiere performance as Weill Recital Hall concerts were not frequented by New York critics. Regardless, Creston, Leeson and their audience were all satisfied with the performance. The sonata's debut recording by Vincent Abato garnered mixed reviews. Several reviewers saw the sonata as being traditional and lacking some depth. Reviewing the Abato record, the musicologist Nathan Broder wrote in The Musical Quarterly that the sonata was a "pleasant little addition to the meagre repertory of the instrument", but that it was conservatively composed and "will not advance the cause of music one inch". In a larger discography published by High Fidelity, Ray Ellsworth described the sonata as "well-wrought if lightweight". Mark Melson agreed with Ellsworth on the sonata's structure, finding it traditional and ably written in a review for the Library Journal. The composer and musicologist Dika Newlin reviewed the sonata in Sigma Alpha Iota's Pan Pipes, finding it enjoyable with "disarmingly catchy rhythms", but also found it to lack depth. Some reviewers detected a French-inspired styling: reviewing Abato's recording in the Saturday Review, the composer Arthur Berger suggested similarities to "salon music of French genre", but with an American influence. American Record Guide's editor James Lyons wrote negatively of the sonata's styling, criticising it as incompatible with the "awfully note-heavy" writing (particularly the accompaniment). In The New York Times, its later chief music critic Harold Schonberg wrote that he found the melodic content enjoyable, but saw it as using a "near-salon approach".
Later reviews of the sonata were more favourable: in a 1979 review for Fanfare, the music critic Walter Simmons lauded the sonata as a "true classic of the saxophone repertoire", with "Mozartian precision" and enjoyable melodic content. He also commented on the sonata's suitability for virtuoso players, being a "flattering medium for representing a performer's artistry". Tim Page of The New York Times wrote that he considered the sonata underrated in a 1983 article, complimenting its authentic and "distinctly American sound".
According to Simmons, the sonata is "probably Creston's single most widely performed and best-known work". It is widely considered an influential piece in the classical saxophone repertoire. In a conversation with Eugene Rousseau, Marcel Mule stated he considered the sonata "one of the definitive works for saxophone and piano" along with Claude Pascal's Sonatine. By 1978, Harry Gee of Indiana State University suggested that it could be "one of the most often performed twentieth-century solos for any wind instrument". Stephen Cottrell—professor of music at City, University of London—expressed a similar sentiment, saying it is "probably now the single most frequently performed recital work in the saxophone repertoire". Along with his other works, the success of Creston's sonata contributed to the development of the saxophone's repertory by inspiring other American composers—including Edvard Moritz, Bernhard Heiden and Burnet Tuthill—to compose for the instrument.
Music
= Movements
=The sonata is in three movements, following a traditional fast–slow–fast structure:
A typical performance lasts approximately thirteen minutes.
I. "With vigor"
The opening movement is in 44 time and is written in a modified sonata form without a recapitulation, comprising an exposition where two themes are stated, a development section and a coda. The movement's harmony mainly uses seventh chords containing tritones and features pantonality: temporary tonal centres occasionally emerge, the principal of which is E. It starts with a vigorous theme in the saxophone.
This theme can be divided into four motifs: although all motifs are used, the third appears most extensively in the development section.
The music calms after an initial climax. A quieter, song-like second theme is introduced in the saxophone, which contrasts the energetic first theme.
A transition occurs following the exposition, introducing a development section that lasts until the end of the movement. Creston develops the first theme using sequences and repetition, manipulating the third motif. Each repetition has an extra crotchet (quarter-note) beat in length, shifting the motif's accentuation and undermining the 44 time. Development of the second theme occurs in piano, later joined by saxophone. Both use an altered range to develop the theme through a darker timbre. After another transition based on the second theme, the first theme is developed until the movement's close. Creston uses scalic runs and the heights of the saxophones range (up to altissimo G6) to create a climax, before using a coda based on the first theme to end the movement.
II. "With tranquility"
"With tranquility" is a slow movement based on lyrical melodies. Its form is the subject of disagreement, and is variously described as through-composed and ternary. Despite the time signature of 54, Creston implies groupings of 34 with two upbeats. This grouping emphasises accented notes, as well as harmonic changes. Later in the movement, 24 and 44 groupings are used. The movement suggests a key of A major, although this is unstable: this tonal centre only appears at the movement's start and end. Harmonically, the movement mainly uses consecutive seventh chords, which are predominantly based on the first three scale degrees in sections using the main theme. It opens with the piano playing a single melodic line with chordal accompaniment, moving by step. Simmons suggests that this melody is a development of the first movement's second theme.
After an exposition of this theme in the saxophone, it is developed by altering timbre and harmony, now in the tonal centre of F♯. The piano accompaniment, which was mainly based on crotchet rhythms, now uses faster semiquavers (sixteenth notes) to form hemiolas with triplet rhythms in the saxophone. This development builds to the movement's climax, where the parts use imitation of rhythm and melody. The theme returns with C as a tonal centre, now lower in range and volume. It is further developed with rhythmic changes introduced in the development. A final cadence in A major is produced after a triadic chromatic descent. The ending uses true 54 groupings for the first time, although the saxophone and piano are out of sync as they use opposing patterns of beats (3+2 against 2+3).
III. "With gaiety"
"With gaiety" is a rondo in 24 with an ABACADA structure. It is in D major, although departures to other tonal centres occur in the rondo's episodes. Unlike previous movements, quartal, diminished and augmented chords are used sparingly, contributing to a more upbeat mood. The movement has a complex rhythmic foundation, drawing on musical traditions from Spain and Latin America. It features polymeters throughout the movement, along with hemiolas. A set of polymeters is presented at the outset: the saxophone (marked "crisp") and left hand of the piano are in 58 with the saxophone accenting each grouping with a mordent, while the right hand of the piano is playing semiquavers in groups of 38.
After the principal theme is introduced, a short transition occurs in the piano before the first episode. A new polymeter is introduced: 24 in the saxophone against 38 groupings in the piano. Accents continue to be used to distinguish groupings. The principal theme returns after a transition (the saxophone melody and piano countermelody are now switched) but is abruptly diverted into another episode after seven bars. A short saxophone transition leads into a calmer episode: smooth melodic lines inspired by movement II appear in the saxophone and accents are absent from both parts.
Another piano transition brings about the principal theme in F♯ major, now much quieter and more developed. A transition from both players leads into the last episode in the key of A major, which is dance-like in nature. The principal theme returns for the last time, now in the home key, and is developed further before a coda. The sonata ends with a scalic climax passed between both instruments.
= Style
=Creston's designation of the piece as a sonata—a rarity among his works—distinguished it from its predecessor, suggesting a classical styling as opposed to his baroque-inspired suite. According to Simmons, this difference is shown by the first movement's use of sonata form, and generally in the greater strength of the sonata's climaxes. The sonata's form is traditional, with each movement's form and tempi following classical era expectations established by composers like Mozart. Writing is often contrapuntal, but not imitatively: there are no fugal or canonic devices in the sonata. Contrary to traditional practice, Creston eschews Italian tempi and expression markings, using English throughout the sonata (e.g. increase instead of crescendo). Key signatures are absent, with Creston preferring accidentals due to the sonata's chromaticism.
The sonata is of substantial difficulty to the saxophonist, using a generally high tessitura along with irregular patterns and scales. It uses all of the saxophone's regular range, venturing into altissimo F♯s and Gs several times. The piano accompaniment to Creston's sonata also difficult and requires a large hand span. It is often described as being just as–if not more–difficult than the saxophone part.
= Tempi
=Creston expressed uncertainty over the original tempi on multiple occasions. During a visit to Ithaca College in 1976, the college's saxophone professor Steven Mauk asked Creston about the accuracy of the sonata's tempi. According to Mauk, Creston exclaimed that "the person who put the tempo markings on this piece was a fool", suggesting slower tempi of = 52–56 and = 144 for movements II and III instead.
Creston requested that performers of the sonata change the tempi at the 1978 Marcel Mule International Saxophone Competition in Gap, France. Jean-Marie Londeix, a jury member at the competition, recounted that Creston's new tempi were = 120, = 60 and = 144 for each movement respectively. Creston had previously expressed the original tempi were too fast in a 1975 letter to Londeix. Londeix considered these alterations beneficial, giving a better balance of tempi and "[allowing] a more clearly defined chamber music character to emerge".
Recordings
Leeson and Creston made the first recording of the sonata (movements I and II) in late 1939 using a Federal Recorder owned by Leeson. The discs still exist, but cannot be played. Vincent Abato, professor of saxophone at the Juilliard School, made the first commercial recording of the sonata in 1955, accompanied by Creston. This was the first time one of Creston's chamber pieces had appeared on record. The first stereo recording was made by Donald Sinta and Nelita True, c. 1968. By 1978, the sonata had appeared on eight records, including those made by Marcel Mule, Sigurd Raschèr, François Daneels and Jean-Marie Londeix; two years later that number increased to fourteen.
Notes and references
= Notes
== References
== Sources
=Further reading
Eckers, Roger (1966). An Analysis of Paul Creston's Sonata for E-flat Alto Saxophone and Piano (MA thesis). Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. OCLC 1405819075.
Sweitzer, Christopher (2010). A Metrical Analysis and Rebarring of Paul Creston's Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Op. 19 (MMus thesis). University of Nebraska-Lincoln. OCLC 702622206.