A Garden of Roses is a composition for wind ensemble written between October 2022 and March 2023 during a residency with the Arizona State University Wind Ensemble. The piece was inspired by a narrative of grief and acceptance abstracted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s children’s story The Little Prince, and explores the relationship between auditory perception and expectation, influenced by David Huron’s Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. The piece is approximately 9 minutes in duration.

Saxophonists regularly transcribe works from the 19th and 20th centuries in order tobolster our repertoire from those eras. As one of the youngest concert instruments, few
substantial works exist for the instrument prior to the mid 20th century. By regularly
transcribing works that are standards in other instruments’ repertoires, we have perpetuated
the historical underrepresentation of female composers from the same time period. In answer
to this, I have researched, analyzed, transcribed, and recorded four works originally for violin
and piano written by female composers born in the 19th century. This program represents
differing styles and nationalities, while being a cohesive program of works. The repertoire
consists of a set of character pieces by Ika Peyron, sonatas by Dora Pejačević and Germaine
Tailleferre, and finally a theme and variations by Teresa Milanollo to serve as a closer. Each
chapter provides insights into my transcription process and tables of the alterations made to
the original material, as well as short analyses of each piece.
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This project presents an article “Considerations for Transcribing Classical Solo Works, A Resource for Fellow Saxophonists” and audio recordings of three new transcriptions for tenor saxophone: Serenade by Adrienne Albert, originally written for bassoon; Ackerbatics by Rebecca Burkhardt, originally written for clarinet; and Sonata voor violoncel en piano by Henriette Bosmans.