Lecture Recital: Mondnacht

Remember my posts from a few months ago titled, “The Art of Song”?  Well, just in case you don’t, you can catch up here, here, and here.  These posts were my initial outline for a lecture recital that Steve and I put together last month.

As a saxophone/piano duo, we enjoy playing transcriptions of art songs (vocal music) as much as anything else.  This program consisted of three vocal pieces – Schumann’s “Mondnacht,” Chausson’s “Sérénade italienne,” and Copland’s “Heart, We Will Forget Him” – all transcribed for tenor saxophone.  We took a few minutes before performing each piece to talk about the composer, the time period, the text, and our considerations when preparing it for the first time.  We even asked the audience for input!