wandering, remembering, run… (2019)

General Information

Commissioner: Roshan Nayar
Written: June – July, 2019
Duration: ca. 7.5’
Instrumentation: asax + pf (alternate version: fl + pf)

Performance History

July 13, 2022: Nadira Novruzov (fl) and Benjamin Beckman (pf) at the Zodiac Music Festival, Valdeblore, France (World Premiere)

Perusal Score

~ This score below is intended for perusal purposes only, and may not be used for performance. To obtain performance materials, please click here. Thank you! ~

Program Note

In the late spring of 2019 I graduated Harvard-Westlake High School alongside about three hundred classmates. As the end of the year approached, I didn't have many sad feelings about the upcoming event. The week of graduation our class went on senior retreat - an overnight trip to the Angeles Forest. On it, I asked the incredibly talented saxophonist and friend of mine Roshan Nayar if I could write a piece for him. He seemed as excited about it as I was, and hence, the idea of wandering, remembering, run... was born. I'd always wanted to write a solo piece for saxophone, given its immense agility and beautiful tone.

While the piece was 'absolute music' at first - no sort of programmatic implication - as its composition continued, I began thinking about the form I had decided on - a modified sonata form - and how much it was tied to my concurrent life experience. While the piece opens with a clear grove and quickly shifting harmonies, it eventually settles into a long, lyrical passage with a sense of reflection before growing back into the groove and ending with a bang. I felt like this paralleled my concurrent life experience - of excitement for the future, for college and the rest of the summer, interspersed with the then-beginning feelings about the sadness of leaving home, and recollections of all the memories I had made in Los Angeles over the years.

The title of these pieces mirrors these emotions. 'Wandering' is living life in the moment. 'Remembering' is the recollection of, and learning from, the past. 'Run' is the pursuit of freedom and joy and excitement for what is to come.

Recording available upon request. Please use the contact form linked in the menu above, or email me at ben.beckman@yale.edu.