Andy Scott

Andy Scott, for his Dark Rain, has won the Category: Wind Band or Brass Band at the British Composer Awards 2006

Concerto for Two Saxophones and Wind Orchestra

Two equal solo saxophone parts

• soprano/alto
• alto/tenor

• Now available to buy online and as an A4 score
  
• A3 Score & parts are now available for hire - email for details.

Programme Note
This concerto pays homage to the versatility of the saxophone and the different styles of writing for the instrument. It is in one continuous movement and after a dramatic opening exclamation from the two soloists, journeys through a collision of contemporary classical, bebop, big band and swing before concluding with a release of tension in a final slower section.

The writing of this concerto took up most of the Summer of 2005, the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima’s destruction. In 1985, whilst on tour in Japan with the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. My experience on that visit, from witnessing the devastation mankind can inflict on itself to the overwhelming quest for peace, was profound. What affected me were ordinary peoples' stories of that fateful day and the effect of the dark rain. At first thought by the survivors to be a salvation from the heavens after the heat of the inferno had dried up all water, the black raindrops were radioactive and many died later from its effects.

Whilst this double saxophone concerto is not meant to be a “war” or “peace” concerto, it does, due to the period it was written in, naturally convey an overall yearning for peace. This culminates in the final chorale section after the tension created by the two soloists working in tandem and individually journeying through the different styles throughout this piece. Dark Rain was especially composed for saxophonists John Harle and Rob Buckland.

'Dark Rain was commissioned by BASBWE Education Trust-College Commission Consortium; Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London College of Music & Media, Royal Northern College of Music, University of Warwick, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama'.

Andy Scott

	Listen to music clips
	Sample (1:04 mins)
	Sample (1:13 mins)
	Sample (1:11 mins)
	Sample (0:55 mins)
	Sample (1:17 mins)