Opus number: 57

Title:  Caprice No. 5

Instrumentation:  alto saxophone

Date written:  February 14, 2001

Length:  four minutes

Dedication: Russell Peterson

Performances: Russell Peterson, September 25, 2002, Moorehead, MN.

Program notes:  “Caprice no. 5” was completed on February 14, 2000, and was written especially for Russell Peterson. Peterson’s remarkable recording of my work “Mahler in Blue Light” inspired me to write a virtuosic solo piece that would further explore his command of the altissimo register.

As in the other works in this series of solo Cparices (for cello, flute, alto recorder, marimba) “Caprice No. 5” is non-programmatic and formallly experimental. This work not only explores the “whole” alto saxophone, it also in an improvisation on the twenty-nine possible four-note chords. Here the chords are linked by interval and played as a melodic cadenza. –Notes by the composer