7 playful studies

Combine traveling around the world, playing saxophone and having fun with this great collection of pieces that will prove a welcome addition to any saxophone teacher’s pedagogical repertoire. Enjoy the close relationship between traditional/folk music and dance! Let yourself be carried away by the asymmetrical meter of Bulgarian folk music with its uneven combination of short and long beats; by the lively articulations of Flamenca guitar music that Maurice Ravel liked so much; by Cooley’s reel - possibly the most famous traditional Irish dance tune that remains hugely popular in England, North America and Canada even today; by the Tarantella from Southern Italy – great training for Henri Tomasi’s Ballade and Alexandre Glazounov’s Concerto; by Klezmer song and dance from Central and Eastern Europe that seem to point all the way to Jerusalem ; and by the emotional rollercoaster of Russian music, quite slow, very sensual and suddenly extremely virtuosic, so be ready! Those who really won’t dance are invited to discover the haunting melancholy of Portuguese fado that sings of love, longing, sorrow and exile, accompanied by plucked string instruments… In the darkest periods of the country’s history, fado attained the status of national song of Portugal. Trying to capture the very soul of each country... Such modes and rhythmic structures appeal to us because they draw on deeply ingrained patterns of human behavior, deep inside each of us, and certainly inside every musician. This heritage is quite remarkable in its infinite richness and never ceases to play a social and quasi-therapeutic role. We are already eager to follow Alexis Ciesla on his next journey to even more adoptive countries!