Holy Roller

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Forces or Category: Solo alto saxophone & wind band

Orchestration: Solo asx, picc, 2 fl, 2 ob, ca, 2 bn, cbn, 1 Eb cl, 3 cl (in Bb), bcl, contra bcl, ssx, asx, tsx, barisx, 4 hn, 3 tpt, flugel, 4 tbn, euph, tba, pn/cel, 2 mallets, timp, 3 perc, db

for alto saxophone solo and wind/concert band.
Holy Roller is a revival sermon captured in the sounds of the alto saxophone and ...

Holy Roller

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Description

for alto saxophone solo and wind/concert band.
Holy Roller is a revival sermon captured in the sounds of the alto saxophone and wind/concert band. It is inspired by classical revival preaching and the music seeks to represent the language: cajoling and incanting, with the intention of magnetizing and mesmerizing the listener through the usage of what Larsen describes as "musical masterpieces of rhythm, tempo and extraordinary tension and release."

Version for alto saxophone and piano is available on sale.

Programme Notes:

The longest running revival meeting in America took place on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California and lasted from 1906 to 1909. Night after night, the Reverend William Seymour preached so passionately that he brought about an ecstatic outpouring from all that were there. They wept, shouted and dropped into dead faints. They spoke in tongues. They jerked uncontrollably. They danced in the aisles. It is said that the Pentecostal movement in the United States was born of this three-year revival meeting.
Holy Roller is inspired by classic revival preaching. To me, revival sermons are stunning musical masterpieces of rhythm, tempo, and extraordinary tension and release. The music flows directly from the language, cajoling, incanting and repeating, at the same time magnetizing and mesmerizing the listener with its irresistible invocations. The music is the language, the language is the music and the result moves the spirit to other states of being.
I love the way the saxophone speaks. Because of its incredible dynamic range and its flexibility a fine performer can make the listener hear words, abstract though they may be.
© Libby Larsen
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Holy Roller

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Libby Larsen

Composer Information

Libby Larsen (b.1950)

Libby Larsen (b. 24 December 1950, Wilmington, Delaware) is one of America's most prolific and most performed living composers. Her catalogue of over 200 works spans virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral and choral scores. Her music has been praised for its dynamic, deeply inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists and orchestras around the world, Libby Larsen has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.

Libby Larsen's website