Originally written for tenor saxophone, drum kit and orchestra, Psathas' exciting concerto Omnifenix has been arranged for tenor saxophone, drum kit and wind band by Scott Lubaroff, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at the University of Central Florida, USA.
Omnifenix is an unusual concerto in that the majority of the two concertante parts consist of instructions for directed improvisation. Originally written for legendary jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker, its title refers to jazz and classical music being "omni-genres", sustained more by philosophies of music and culture than by any specific concepts of style. It describes a piece of music that is reborn differently each time. Like a phoenix, the improviser will continue to emerge anew and redefine the rules of their dynamic dialogue with the orchestra each time the work is performed.
In adapting Omnifenix to fit the instrumentation of the contemporary wind ensemble, I added parts for additional mallet instruments and piano that – in addition to aligning with typical wind ensemble instrumentation – were also designed to accommodate some of the pizzicato techniques and other string effects in the original orchestral version. Perhaps the greatest challenge was determining a way of creating the portamento string effects in the middle of the piece. I settled on an overlapping portamento in muted trumpets (harmons, stems out) and trombones that worked very effectively.
