NINE SKETCHES AFTER AMMONS

Trio for Saxophones, Harp, and Percussion

Duration: 20'
Instrumentation: saxophones (soprano, alto, and tenor), harp, and percussion.
Commission: by saxophonist Scott Litroff.
Premiere: May 2008, Mannes College. (Scott Litroff, Sivan Magen, Ashley Baier).

Archie Randolph Ammons, 1926-2001, was an award winning American poet. His poetry is known for its idiosyncratic approach to punctuation: the colon, for example, is considered an Ammons "signature"; he often uses it as an all-purpose punctuation mark. Some of Ammons works are very short one or two lines poems, while others are hunders of lines long poems which are in fact prose books. Among his major honors are two National Book Awards, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and a McArthur Fellowship