Panic
Subtitle: A Dithyramb for alto saxophone, jazz drummer, wind, brass and percussion
General Info
Year: 1995
Duration: c. 18:20
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Rental | Score Only (print) - $56.94
Instrumentation
Full Score
Solo Alto Saxophone
Flute I-II-III (II-III doubling Piccolo)
Oboe I-II-III (III doubling cor anglais)
Bassoon I-II-III (III doubling Contrabassoon)
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II (II doubling E-flat Soprano Clarinet)
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV (IV doubling Piccolo Trumpet)
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion, including:
- Jazz Drum Set
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Panic is a concertante work for alto saxophone, jazz drum kit, woodwinds, brass and percussion by Harrison Birtwistle. It was written in 1995 and premiered as part of the Last Night of the Proms on 16 September 1995 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It was commissioned by John Drummond in his last season as director of The Proms.
Its full name is Panic: A Dithyramb for alto saxophone, jazz drummer, wind, brass and percussion. The title indicates both the nature of the music and the fact that it is a representation of the Classical Greek god Pan.
The music is heavily focused on the solo saxophone which plays almost uninterruptedly throughout, at times seeming to overwhelm the accompanying wind and percussion. Some commentators have noted that the saxophone is clearly identified with Pan himself.
Panic has been called a succès de scandale due to the widespread negative press it received at its premiere. According to the Daily Telegraph, it met with incomprehension from many viewers.
- Program Note from Wikipedia
I have called the work a dithyramb, in classical Greece a choric song in honor of Dionysus, whose wild exuberance here runs riot. The soloist, as chorus leader, is identified with the mythic god Pan, literally “spreading ruin and scattering ban” as in the quotation from Elizabeth Barrett Browning with which I preface this score. The title Panic refers to the feelings of ecstasy and terror experienced by animals in the night at the sound of Pan’s music. The chaos wreaked by Pan is exemplified by the conflict between the orchestra and the alto saxophone soloist together with the drum kit. At times the two odd-men-out rebel and branch out, adopting tempos independent of the orchestra.
- Program Note by composer
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. BBC Symphony Orchestra (Andrew Davis, conductor; John Harle, alto saxophone)
- Audio CD: BBC Symphony Orchestra (Andrew Davis, conductor; John Harle, alto saxophone) - 1996
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto (Portugal) Casa da Música (Baldur Brönnimann, conductor; Marcus Weiss, alto saxophone) – 29 April 2017
- Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, U.K.) Wind Orchestra (Mark Herron, conductor; Harry Fausing Smith, alto saxophone) - 28 January 2016
- Eastman Wind Ensemble (Rochester, N.Y.) (Brad Lubman, condcutor; Chien-Kwan Lin, alto saxophone) - 6 November 2013
- BBC Symphony Orchestra (Andrew Davis, conductor; John Harle, alto saxophone) – 16 September 1995 *Premiere Performance*
Works for Winds by This Composer
- 17 Tate Riffs (2000)
- Chorale from a Toy Shop (1967/1978)
- Donum Simoni MMXVIII (2018)
- The Fields of Sorrow (1971-1972)
- Five Distances (1992)
- An Imaginary Landscape (1971)
- The Mask of Orpheus (1973-1984)
- Panic (1995)
- Placid Mobile (1998)
- Refrains and Choruses (1959)
- The Silk House Tattoo (1998)
- Tenebrae David (2001)
- Verses (1969)
Resources
- Birtwistle, H. (2003). Panic : a Dithyramb For Alto Saxophone, Drum Kit, Wind, Brass, and Percussion [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: London.
- Panic (Birtwistle), Wikipedia Accessed 15 March 2021
- "PANIC a dithyramb for alto saxophone, jazz drummer, wind, brass and percussion by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (GB, 1934)." WASBE. Web. (Featured as WASBE’s Composition of the Week, 15 March 2021). Accessed 13 January 2023