Walter Hartley, a composer who has been the composer in residence at the State University of New York, Fredonia, has written extensively for the saxophone, or, more accurately, for the saxophones, writing for virtually all of this large family of winds.

This sonata has become one of the most important pieces in the relatively limited repertory for this under-rated type of saxophone, liberating it from its tendency to play harmony parts and to honk away in older style of rock Œn roll.

At ten minutes, it is a brief piece, which is considerate for the player, for the instrument is heavy and requires effort to blow. The first movement divides into four parts, slow-fast-slow-fast. The second movement is only about two minutes long, and since the third movement follows without pause it strikes one as an introduction to it. This gives the entire sonata the feeling of a continuous piece, made of three pairs of alternating slow and fast sections. The final section or movement is the most extensive unit of the sonata, beginning with a piano fugue.



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