Cerulean

David Biedenbender

General Info

Year: 2014 / 2017
Duration: c. 13:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bent Space Music, through Murphy Music Press
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $50.00

Movements

1. Sirens
2. Lullaby
3. Goof Groove

Instrumentation

Full Score
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Cerulean was inspired by my son Izaak. From the moment he was born, he was extraordinarily curious and inquisitive. He often looked around the room, searching for interesting objects, enthusiastically turning his head, and opening his big, beautiful blue eyes wide to get a better view of the world around him. He also loved (and still loves) to find and follow interesting sounds, including the sirens of passing fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances.

In the first movement, Sirens, I imagined waves of sound approaching and then departing in slow motion, like some strange police siren heard through a baby’s distorted sense of time. The second movement is a simple lullaby. Rather than sing the same lullaby for him each night, I often found myself humming long, repetitive, improvised phrases that eventually, over the course of rocking him to sleep, coalesced into a more coherent melody. The movement begins with soft, hushed waves -- different waves than the first movement. These waves eventually transform into something more ecstatic, as I imagine him making the transition from consciousness to the exciting, magical place of a baby’s dreams. Finally, I find the tune for which I was searching, played by the soprano saxophone and accompanied by a hymn-like chorale played by the rest of the quartet that has been slightly distorted, as if the sound has been refracted through the flickering flame of a candle that is warmly illuminating Izaak’s room as he sleeps.

The final movement, Goof Groove, is inspired by this goofy dance he liked to do in our living room. As a baby, he would sit and awkwardly bob his torso back and forth in a peculiar meter while singing his own crazy, lilting tune; however, as he got older and learned to walk, he began to run and spin in circles, dancing and singing silly songs. I imagined the goofy bobbing of his infancy transforming into the spinning circular dancing he now does at four years old, eventually spinning out of control, finally arriving in a tired, happy, dizzy heap on the floor.

- Program Note by composer

Media

Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
Audio CD: Sinta Quartet – 2020

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

United States Army Field Band (Fort Meade, Md.) Saxophone Quartet (Jim R. Keane, conductor) - 15 December 2021 (2021 Midwest Clinic)
The Sinta Saxophone Quartet - 2014 (Champaign, Ill.) *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

Resources

Biedenbender, D. (2017). Cerulean: For Saxophone Quartet [score]. Bent Space Music: [East Lansing, Mich.?].
David Biedenbender website Accessed 18 December 2021
Perusal score