J. Simon van der Walt

Contemporary catalog

Muscle Tone

13/2/03 for soprano saxophone & piano

Composer's note

The glory of physical culture! Gleaming, sweaty torsos, pounding muscles, pushing harder, harder, towards that perfect self, made flesh! The vaunting ambition, the exercise machine, the mirror; even a gentle ride down a country lane on a rickety bicycle becomes a battle with time & age.

And how good it feels afterwards!

Notes

Written for Ephyra, who are Charlotte Bradburn (sax) and Adam Caird (piano). First performance was, umm, I'm so useless with dates, a while back, in Dunfermline, was it? Anyway, it was fantastic! I can't believe how well they played what is really a pretty difficult piece.

(Now I hear from Charlotte they are going to record it on their next album...)

Duration ~7 mins