Tea for Three (2019)

for saxophone trio​

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Duration: 3.5 minutes

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Program Notes

Tea For Three is a set of variations on the world-famous song, "Tea For Two" by Vincent Youmans In the old days (whenever that was) composers wrote certain pieces in a genre called "Theme and Variations" where, formulaically, the theme
was presented and then the variations would follow. But the history of music is littered with composers breaking
the rules. Perhaps the most famous example of this rule being broken is Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, where all the variations are presented but the theme is nowhere to be found (or it is so disguised that nobody has been able to convincingly find it!). Tea For Three opens with the tune so severely abstracted that I imagine few people if any would ever guess that it is, essentially, the melody for "Tea For Two". The same is true for the third section, though it is not quite as severely damaged. The rest is happily recognizable as the famous tune. The racing coda has just a little bit of the theme in it. Bon appetit!​

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Purchase

To order score and parts for Tea for Three, please contact the composer here.

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