A film a day to practice away. (New Film Themes - Playalong for Alto Saxophone)

Member Name: paulhanton

Product:	New Film Themes - Playalong for Alto Saxophone
Date:	21/11/08 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tricky, diciplined pieces.

Disadvantages: Bit boring.

New Film Themes

Playalong for Alto Saxophone

Another publication form 'Wise Publications', this is a sheet music book and CD. The CD contains full instrumental tracks with saxophone included, as well as backing tracks with the saxophone part omitted, hence the 'Playalong'.

Like all the Wise publications in this series, there is a useful saxophone fingering chart and saxophone 'cut away' showing the finger positions.

Musicroom.com, where I bought this for £10.95 list the book as intermediate level, see below, which should indicate players that are Grades 4-6 could play the tunes listed. It is important to note that the books publishers do not classify the level of the tunes.

Intermediate (Slightly simplified arrangements; Grade 4-6)


~~The Songs~~

1. Le Banquet/La Valse Des Monstres (Amelie) [Tiersen, Yann]
The first song is not particularly hard starting in 3:4 time in D Major (C and F sharp). Mainly quavers, crotchets and a few minims the timing presents no great challenges either. The final part where it changes to 'La Valse De Monstres' little more difficult, finishing in A Major with a few accidentals, but no big deal for a competent Grade 4 player. The note range is also very 'mid range' which makes life a little simpler, though rhythmically, the 2nd half is a little more challenging.

2. All Love Can Be (A Beautiful Mind) [Horner, James]
This is an interesting piece, starting in A Major and 4:4 timing, long, slow slurs of minims, not particularly difficult, but requires a fair amount of note control. The piece changes in the final third to B Major which is not required until Grade 6 (ABRSM), though again, long slurred minims make it not too difficult in terms of 'finding' the notes. Nice piece to play and listen to.

3. Pelagia's Song (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) [Warbeck, Stephen]
A Major, 4:4 timing to start, quite easy, then we get the first of several timing changes from 4:4 to 3:2 and back again, and a couple of small 6:4 sections. Not too difficult, but does take a little thinking about. A small phrase is also in a different key, E Major. So all in all, a good Grade 5 piece, sounds lovely in my opinion.

4. Passage of Time (Chocolat) (Portman, Rachel)
E Major to start, which in itself is Grade 5. Some quite complicated timing mixes with a lot of accidentals (notes outside of the key signature) thrown in. As if this is not difficult enough, we get a change to F# Major (Grade 6) and some quite complex timing and rest mixes as well as a fair few slurs mixed with staccato notes. I struggle with this and in my opinion it is at the very top end of Grade 6, if not Grade 7.

5. Eternal Vow (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) [Tan Dun]
Bit easier than the last song as it is in D Major, common time, few tricky timing (counting) phrases and bars, but okay.

6. Pull Yourself Together (Gosford Park) [Doyle, Patrick]
Easy key (D Major) no real timing issues, just a few low C's which I dislike (have to use little finger on right hand)

7. Honor Him/Now We Are Free (Gladiator) [Zimmer, Hans]
Very easy piece to play, G Major, 3:4 timing, but I have to say, great with the film, boring without......at one point the instructions are to play quite quietly (mp) and 'dreamily', I nearly fell asleep.

8. Come What May (Moulin Rouge) [Baerwald, David]
A Major, common time, lots of semi quaver runs, not too hard, but not the most inspiring piece to play or to listen to.

9. Mothersbaugh's Canon (The Royal Tenenbaums) [Mothersbaugh, Mark]
Very slow piece (63 bpm) lots of held notes in slurs in A Major. So whilst not difficult, this piece takes some control. Then just like in Palchebal's Canon, we get a run of semi quavers that go up and down with each run (slurred), sometimes with some quite tricky transitions, for example: B, F#, D#, F#, B, F#, D, F#, F# (octave higher) F# (octave lower), E (higher), F# (lower)...good fingering practice.

10. Clair De Lune (Ocean's Eleven) [Debussy, Claude]
Very slow (50bpm) which is just as well as we start with some high E's, never easy, very tricky time signature of 9:8 and a real mix of playing styles and instructions......sounds horrid, or it might be my playing, though to be honest, transposing down a bit makes it sound better.


~~~Finally~~~

Most of these pieces are very 'classical' like in their composition; some are in fact, classical pieces. So in terms of playing discipline this is a great book to keep. I have to say that these are not my favourite pieces to play, and they rarely see the light of day, but one cannot complain about 9 pieces of sheet music and a CD for under £11.

Summary: New Film Themes.