Paul Creston's Sonata for saxophone and piano, Op. 19, is an early work, composed in 1939, just a half dozen or so years after Creston really committed himself to a career writing music. (Recognition came speedily to Creston: he earned himself a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1938!) The work is written for E flat saxophone and has three movements, the headings of which are in common-sense English, as espoused by a handful of American composers in the 1930s and '40s, rather than the traditional Italian. Movement 1 is marked "With vigor" and is appropriately filled with vivacious rhythms; short, pointed gestures are balanced against long legato lines, both types of material having been built using Creston's usual richly chromatic, thickly harmonized tonal idiom. "With tranquility," the second movement, is a lovely A major instrumental song in 5/4 time, while "With gaiety," the D major finale, is crisp and decisive, but not necessarily loud. In the finale, a wonderfully greasy central melodic episode (marked "smooth") slows things down for a while.

© Blair Johnston, Rovi