“How to Perform Eugene Bozza’s Aria for Saxophone | Complete Interpretation & Tips” Complete Version

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[00:00:00]Hello everyone. Welcome back to my YouTube channel and happy new year. My name is Wank Lee and I'm assistant professor of saxophone at Montana State University. Today I'm really excited to share with you a new series called master class where I'm going to introduce and dig down deep of each pieces and show you how I could create my own interpretation using analysis and historical backgrounds and all sorts of musical knowledge. And I want to get to really really deep with each saxform repertoire. Today I'm going to share with you everybody's favorite using Bots's area. I also recorded this piece uh years ago in my album called Air Songs for saxophone. So you could check that uh recording or watching my YouTube video of the performance. But I want to share with you step by step and how I construct my own interpretation that it's going to be compelling. And this is a new series that I've been planning and I'm going to um add major pieces like crescent sonata or duk sonata or if you have like specific request I'm happy to include it. So please make sure to subscribe and make sure to leave the comment. Also I've started new uh membership channel uh in the this YouTube channel. So, in the membership, you get to watch all my videos ahead of time than everybody else. And on top of that, these master class videos, if you want to watch the whole thing, I'll welcome you to join my membership because I wanted to create a community where the listener and people who love this music and this saxophone are really dedicated. So I wanted to create this like dedicated saxoponist community uh in my channel. So that's my goal with this membership. Now on top of that with the top tube membership I'm going to start uploading my own lesson videos uh with my students on a weekly basis so that you get to be observer and you get to learn what we do in a higher education as well. So consider subscribing consider become a membership as well. Now Baltazaria obviously everybody's favorite one of the most beautiful piece written for saxophone and piano and when we approach any music the first step is always to really get to know about the composer and the background of this piece. Why was this piece composed? When was this composed and whom this piece was composed for? Or what's the style?

[00:02:52]What's the musical technique that composer is using? All these details really matters to create your own interpretation.

[00:02:59]So let's start with using Bza. He's obviously a French composer and French composer of 20th century. He was born 1905 and passed away in 1991.

[00:03:12]So I was born 1989. So thankfully I'm a little bit over loved with using Bza. He was a very prolific composer. He wrote a lot of music for wind instruments but he dedicated his life to really compose for chamber music. There's a various different sources of why this piece was composed. One sources that I came across was that after winning pretty the wrong which is one of the most important competition for composers at the time.

[00:03:39]He stopped writing but he was supposed to produce a piece. So a friend of him reminded him you have to write something and quickly he wrote this ba area originally probably for cello and piano there's a version for clinet and piano and flute and piano but also this area was dedicated to Marca Mal great French saxoponist professor of pur conservatory so the truth I am not sure how which piece which instrument was this originally intended however However, we know so far that Boltza took the melody or let's say inspired by uh JS Bach's another piece called Pastoral in F major BWB 590 and you get to hear exactly same melodic structure uh same harmonic language. So probably the BA took the melody and ideas and quickly turn it into a very lyricical piece for each wind instrument. Now the title is area.

[00:04:45]What is area? Area is the term used in opera. So obviously it has to do with a singer. And area by definition is a self-contained solo piece for a singer with accompaniment or without accompaniment. So the truth is this is a boho piece. And by just looking at the title, I get inspired already that okay, I I'm supposed to emulate the quality of a singer. So that's giving me an idea of how I approach this piece as well. Now after we have this historical background of composer and the piece, next step is to analyze a piece. Now how do we analyze? And this is where it gets really sophisticated because you need to have uh knowledge of music theory. So if you're a music major right now and studying at the college level, please take music theory seriously because without understanding the music theory, you won't be able to analyze the piece.

[00:05:50]What's the point of analysis? Well, we want to look into the music from composer's point of view. Like why did he use that specific harmony? Why did he use that and there? So we want to make sense out of composer's mind. Now when we do the analysis, my recommendation is always go from the bigger picture which is the structure of the music and then go deeper and smaller. So I always start with what's the structure of this piece.

[00:06:23]Now if you look into the piece and if you look into the area let's see let's start looking to score and see how many measures do we have entirely beautifully we have 80 measures. Okay. So that's the length of this music. Now next what is the basic structure and how do we know the difference between uh different sections? Well, you could look into from melodic perspective, but usually it's best to approach from harmonic perspective. Now, this piece starts with G minor. Now, when I say G minor, this is a concert pitch. Okay?

[00:07:08]So, at the beginning, it start from concert D. Now, of course, G and B flat is missing. I think what Vzo was trying to do is to make this first G minor chord coming from kind of far away. So he start from fifths at third at the bass and the even the seventh in the fourth measure. So that's what you see for the first four measures is basically arrival of G minor chord. Then size four enters.

[00:07:43]Now we're still staying in G minor. Now first cadence that I can see is right here at measure 8 n 10 11.

[00:07:54]This big five one cadence. Okay. So that's a big moment and that signifies that first phrase ends right here. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six measures length. Now what happens next?

[00:08:08]Where's the next cadence? If you go look another big cadence happens two measures after two. Okay, another 51 authentic cadence. Okay, so that's a very good hint to have. And then what happens the next page?

[00:08:26]Oh, again I see a nice cadence right here at measure 24.

[00:08:37]Then finally, if you look carefully at rehearsal number three, we are moving into D minor.

[00:08:45]So since we are moving to D minor, I can say that at measure 27 or 28 [snorts] might be the good place of a new section. So why don't we say this is a B B section. So the first section from very first measure is a section.

[00:09:10]Now let's see let's keep continue.

[00:09:13]So now we're in D minor and then it modulates to C minor uh measure 34.

[00:09:24]Then we're going to move into oh B minor measure 42. So we're moving around different keys. Major 47, we're going back to C minor.

[00:09:36]And then he says in C minor, but very chromatic, very diminished, and very kind of dark crunched quality. Uh, in reverse number five, then finally we have return signal of G minor. We're going into G minor.

[00:10:00]No. Is that the true reversal number six? If you look carefully, yes, we have G minor chord. And for the rest of the piece, it stays in G minor. If you look at the melody, it's exactly the same melody as the beginning. So, we could safely say that this is return of a section.

[00:10:20]So in a big picture just by looking at the melody and harmony we can conclude that this is a ba form which is called turnary form and turnary form is very popular form for area sometimes it's called song form even because it was used u in the operatic tradition uh to write area so for by many many composers Now since we have the big picture already let's say the structure of the music the form form of area is now a section going to b section and going back to a section.

[00:11:13]Now, how many measures did we have for the A sections?

[00:11:18]Let's see. Beginning all the way two, I would say since we have nice one chord here, that's should be the end of a section, which is measure 20.

[00:11:32]So, I'm going to go back to my note and write 20 measures.

[00:11:39]Then, we have something called transition because we're transitioning into another key. How about we say we're transitioning into D minor. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven measures and transitioning into B.

[00:11:59]So I would say seven measures as T transition.

[00:12:06]Now how long is B section? Let's see. 31 32 33.

[00:12:12]So that's 33 in the B sections with various different keys.

[00:12:20]And then going back to A section stays in G minor. How many measures do we have? 18 19 20. Voila.

[00:12:29]Exactly same as the previous A section.

[00:12:32]Now if you look carefully including the transition and B section, that's 40 measures. So if you look carefully, A section together has 40 and B section has a 40 total of 80 measures.

[00:12:49]That's the beauty of structure.

[00:12:52]And this is not coincidence. Composers always think about these structures because to compose is like to build a building or house. There is a foundation and they need to think about the foundation and what's the structure of that. So for bolts area it's A and B section are exactly the same proportion which is quite beautiful. So that's what we hear unconsciously when we listen to the music. We actually get to hear these proportions. If it's a little bit off we can feel instability of the compositional form as well. So sometimes composers do that on purposely which was very popular way to express in a romantic period. Now these very proportional structure was popular um from Renaissance period all the way to the classical period. So this is very common but it's still nice to discover the beauty of the structure. Harmonic structure is also very important to understand. So in A section we are G minor. The return of A section G minor.

[00:13:58]What about the B sections? Let's go here.

[00:14:02]We have D minor, then C minor, B minor, and C minor again. And then going back to the G minor. So we have one, two, three, four different kind of key structure as well. So that's the big picture that we have. Now let's go back to the music and score.

[00:14:34]And after we analyze these details, we want to finally add a little bit of a personal taste uh to it so that it becomes your own interpretation. The first important idea is what's the length of one phrase?

[00:14:50]And normally we could just we can tell by just looking at the saxon solo part.

[00:14:56]But sometimes composers will trick you with different harmonies. So it's always good to follow the harmonic progression.

[00:15:02]Now if you looked at the beginning, the first harmony starts measure five, right? And the first cadence happens two after one. So one, two, three, four, five, six measures is one phrase. So that's the first idea.

[00:15:19]What about next case is two after two.

[00:15:22]So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

[00:15:30]So next phrase has 10 measures.

[00:15:35]So BZA decided to elongate this idea.

[00:15:39]Now that you understand the length of first phrase, you want to make sure to express that. So the good way to create a phrase is a crescendo to crescendo. So we want to make sure to do the crescendo towards maybe around one because a is the highest note in this phrase and then really come down at measure 11.

[00:16:21]>> [music] >> That's the first phrase. We're up on next phrase.

[00:16:35][music] [music] >> [music] >> like that. Okay. So that's the length of phrasing of the first page in the score.

[00:17:01]Now let's look even deeper into what's happening with saxophone part and the piano part. Now when we enter the first note our G is which is concert B flat is not doubled in the piano part. So this is based on the concert C. It's going to be the seventh chord. Okay. And it's not doubled. So our note is actually very important to be very prominent. So we want to make sure it's it says piano but piano is only a volume. Piano is carries also a emotional aspect to it. Piano could be sad. Piano could be warm. Piano could be soft. Piano could be kind. Piano could be gentle.

[00:17:55]Here we want to make sure to enter clearly because without our G the harmony will be like in the seventh chord. So make sure to come in clearly with confidence although it says piano.

[00:18:12]What about next long note? How about major 7th F#?

[00:18:16]So considering the lowest note the root is concert F and our F sharp is concert A. So it's going to be the third of the harmony. In a just intonation if you want to make sure to be really in tune the third need to be flatter than the equal temperament. So make sure this F sharp is aimed a little bit lower in ch in in terms of tuning. So it seems like most of the longer notes every time we sustain it tends to fall in almost the third of the harmony. So we want to be careful with all these longer notes to be really in tune. If it's always sharp, you need to make sure to practice with tuner. You need to make sure to play with the piano and then practice that tuning.

[00:19:05]Now whenever we have the cadence credential moment we want to make sure give give a sense of release. So at measure nine when we have this nice [snorts] big cadence this G although this is 16 notes I don't want to just pass it. I want to make sure to give emphasis on that G to signal the harmonic resolution. So that's very important to do. I want to demonstrate all these details and how it comes into style. But another big question that we need to ask is what about the vibbratto?

[00:19:44]So we know by historical background this piece was inspired by JS Bach which is a baro music and it's a big debate that's going on in a bar period. Was there a usage of bib? There are many bar specialists believing that there wasn't vibbratto. So if you believe and if you support that idea, one way to be really authentic is use absolutely no vibbratto.

[00:20:13]And that's okay. If you believe in that's the inspirational style, you should stick with it because you have a um valid reason to do so. For me, I I cannot resist the romantic quality of this area. And since the Bza even wrote the title area, I want to be vocal.

[00:20:35]Singers when I think about the singers always use very musical vibatto. So personally, I want to use vibra in this piece. Now since it's vocal, I'm trying to emulate the vibatto of singer.

[00:20:53]And throughout my analysis and studies, I discovered singers tend to have a much faster vibratto. So usually it falls into 16 notes equal about 80 BPM of a vibrto.

[00:21:15]Yeah. Not too wide. Keep it really tiny.

[00:21:23]Okay. Yeah. Let's let's try the be again. We want to make sure to come in clearly.

[00:21:48]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hopefully you could hear that I emphasize arrival of our G at measure 19 to signal the the credential moment um the harmonic resolution of five going to one chord. Now another tricky spot is measure 13 of high C. Again this high C falls into the third of the harmony and C tend to be really sharp and it's also pianisimo.

[00:22:46]So I want to help you with alternate fingering. When you play high C, make sure to close down the right right hand F# key. That will help you to bring the pitch down.

[00:23:02]>> [music] >> The beauty is you could just come from E and then just leave the F sharp key just release the other finger [music] and you should be able to achieve the tuning to be really correct.

[00:23:23]Now we are moving into uh the transitional spot.

[00:23:29]Then when you look into the measure 24 we have on that means gradually speed up and here the fingering matters. Now first we have B and C trill. So the best way to go is not to cross fingering but use TC key.

[00:23:50]And then immediately we have a sharp. I like to use this bisy closed by my second finger like this.

[00:24:02][music] [music] Again, that C sharp that tends to be really sharp. It's also the third of the chord. Again, to bring the pitch down, you could close down the right hand F sharp or even F natural.

[00:24:24]In this case, I'm just calling an F sharp.

[00:24:34]Now, make sure we are speeding up, but also uh rehearsal number three. Composer didn't write it, but it's probably implied in my personal opinion to bring back the tempo, back to a tempo. So we need to slow down right before three. Okay. To bring back to the tempo. So it should go like this from 21.

[00:25:05][music] >> [music] >> It's very expressive, very romantic uh phrasing and expression. Now at verse number three we have D E D C sharp D grace notes and C sharp is also a very problem problematic note for saxophone in this case because it's piano and it's really vocal I don't want to make it instrumental like mechanic [music] but I want to connect them better so for this C sharp. Here's a finger I use coming from D with octave key. Let go of B and A, one and two. And that should give you C sharp.

[00:26:11]Make sure to keep the octave key as well [music] to give you nice and warm and connected phrasing. So [music] but what composer is doing is using these cadential moment to move into the another key and the technique is called sometimes chromatic modulation sometimes composer pivot chord modulations and these are things you get to learn in a music school if you study music theory here composer is using the chromatic modulation ition uh the rehearsal number three and measure 34 as well and moving into different keys. So you want to give a sense of direction that we are moving.

[00:27:03]I don't want audience to give a sense of kind of relaxation from this point especially from 34. Okay. And that's going to be concluded in a high D sharp for saxophone with loudest note forisimo in B minor. And that's really painful, really shocking, big moment. So you want to make sure to hit that moment to be really dramatic.

[00:27:28]So from 34 >> [music] >> before really dramatic and there's a sense of release harmonically speaking. Now that D sharp is going to be the fifths of the chord.

[00:28:09]So it doesn't need to be too flat. You could just let it kind of project easily. I think composer designed that way to make this moment to be really bright and clearly indicates that's a climatic moment of this entire piece that falls into measure 42 which is exactly in the center of the piece. So I think that's very cool idea to see.

[00:28:36]Then we come back to another key C minor at measure 47. Okay. So there's a sense of kind of calmness and then from rehearsal number five it's a very chromatic harmony again and again and again. Okay. So it feels like we are lost.

[00:28:55]So let's give a sense of kind of directionless. Uh, verse number five.

[00:29:04][music] [music] >> [music] >> and the F sharp which is nice leading tone to next chord and that's the moment of arrival. One thing you need to be careful is measure 54 and 56 has middle C sharp long note and that C sharp also needs to be in tune because that falls into the third of the chord as well. And my recommendation, my fingering is octave three and five.

[00:30:14][music] It's a little buzzy but gives nice warm quality with the pitch to be really in tune.

[00:30:24][music] [music] Then when we arrive rehearsal number six, measure 61, we're coming back with the same beginning. But when you look at the score, the harmony changes. Now, in the beginning, we had these second chord when we hit the first G.

[00:30:59]However, when we return of a section that measure 61, we have the G minor triad, the one chord, which makes it really feels like we came home and give you a sense of kind of calmness and safety. And on top of that, this B flat, our G is doubled in the piano. So, it's okay to be really piano sensational because you're not losing the cordal quality. So here you could be as quiet as gentle as possible. Sometimes you could use vibratto. So you don't need to use vibrto. That's your up to you. But make this moment absolutely special. And then harmonically it's very stable. It stays in G minor. We're not going anywhere. We're staying home. Okay. So enjoy the sense of stability.

[00:31:52]So let's try to express that from three measures before [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Now one of the most difficult thing in this section is obviously the tuning because we are playing really sensibly and really quiet. So the tuning will go sharp and sharp and this is towards the end of the piece you're getting tired.

[00:33:00]So this is a matter of also endurance.

[00:33:02]That's why we need to practice every day and to keep our endurance to be higher.

[00:33:08]But also you could use uh help of the fingering as well. If for example measure 65 your A is very difficult to be in tune and sustain it, you could close down the F sharp key which helps you to bring the pitch down.

[00:33:40]Then we get into the ending. Now this is a small trick but at the right at ending when you hit the low E.

[00:33:51]Yes, the decendo towards the piano.

[00:33:56]But here's my recommendation. Do not do the decendo too early. Wait until the piano hits the last chord at 80 and add the decendo. And that way it gives a really great sense of ending and security.

[00:34:13]So try that and I'll show you in the last example when I play through with piano recording to see the effect of that sustain last note and then release at the very end. Now one thing that I want to talk about is how to make this music even more expressive and emotional. And there's a technique called tempo robato and a goic playing.

[00:34:38]Now robato is manipulation of time within the phrase. So we speed up and we slow down. So in a bigger picture we don't change the time. But with inside of the box of time we manipulate. Once you speed up something you need to slow it down. Otherwise it sounds very unnatural. And I guess that's a law of nature low of conservation of energy.

[00:35:01]Music is invented and created by human beings in this place on earth and on earth we have gravity music innately have a sense of kind of coming back to the home base right that's what we have in a harmonic language tonic and dominant relationship which define the tonal quality it can be applied to the phrasing too and also when you see something going upward ascending motion It's like a roller coaster. Um, if you go to six flags, for example, if you go up it slows down and then if you're going down gradually it speeds up because of the gravity. We could also use that idea to apply for the phrasing to be more robato and more expressive.

[00:35:51]Another concept is called agoic play.

[00:35:54]And agoic is much more smaller um manipulation of time. It could just happen like one note or a few notes or just top of the phrasing to be a little more expressive by taking time or by adding little expression to it just like what I did at rehearsal number 19 when there was a cential moment on our G. Now let me show you how it goes from probably measure measure. Um now let me show you how we can apply this idea and technique into expression. So from beginning I'm going to play from beginning all the way up to um number three.

[00:36:37][snorts] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Now be careful. I did a lot this time just just to show you the uh example.

[00:37:45]But if you do it too much, it becomes too much. So you need to be careful how much is the right amount. that can be only uh defined by experience, defined by taste. And these are the subtle details of a musicianship that we need to cultivate as we become more advanced and sophisticated. I think this time it was too much. Um I rather keep it simple. Now another aspect of expression that you need to remember is expression is a contrast between non-expressivity all the way to very expressive. So it's okay to have absolutely simplified phrasing. We need that otherwise it becomes just everything is too expressive which is non-expressive.

[00:38:37]So it's also important to have a simplicity in the music and that's something you want to think about. So in my case, I'm okay with simply just playing the rhythm and notes at the beginning. Music is going to develop later. So at the beginning, I just want to sustain the long notes. Now another thing you need to be careful is whenever you play the longer notes, our default state is to have a day crescendo because we are losing our air. We're suffocating. So we want to just kind of but the music wants to continue. Music has a musical direction and the best singers can do this really well to carry the phrase all the way and that's what we need to aim. So whenever you have a longer notes, sustain it.

[00:39:31][music] [music] That way it's going to make it sound more vocal. And because to be vocal means to connect the line with beautiful vibbratto and beautiful tone quality.

[00:39:58]Now that we covered all the details of this piece, let's play through the entire piece with piano compliment. I found this piano compliment on YouTube by Aleandro and this is a real uh pianist performing the piano component and very musical. So I'm just following his ideas. So, some of the details may not be exactly what I wanted, but I think it's still beautiful interpretation. So, enjoy this performance.

[00:40:34][music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat.

[00:41:08][music] [music] Heat.

[00:41:26]Heat. [music] [music] Heat.

[00:41:45][music] Heat.

[00:41:55][music] [music] Heat.

[00:42:17]Oh, [music] [music] heat.

[00:42:39]Oh, [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] yeah. Oh, [music] heat.

[00:43:29][music] Oh, [music] hey.