David Noon- Partita

Commissioned by Jeanie Muhonen and Nicholas Goluses, Partita op. 103 was originally written for flute and guitar. The movements reflect on Baroque dance movements of similar name, capturing the pastorale and rustic charm found in these older dance forms. David Noon wrote opus 103b for soprano saxophone and guitar at the request of Paul Cohen, who was struck by its sustained lyric beauty and dark sonority. Few changes were made in the soprano part, its range almost perfectly suited to the original scoring.

David Noon is one of the country's most played contemporary composers. Born of Pennsylvania Dutch, Welsh and American Indian heritage in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on 23 July 1946, he began playing the clarinet at the age of eight and later he played the bassoon, flute, piccolo and piano. He received his undergraduate degree at Pomona College, an M.A. in musicology at N.Y.U. and an M.M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Yale University. His teachers have included Karl Kohn, Darius Milhaud, Charles Jones, Yehudi Wyner and Mario Davidovsky. He has received a Fulbright Fellow in 1972 and was composer-in- residence at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos New Mexico in 1976. Noon's other works for saxophone include Hymn Variations (1993) for soprano saxophone, violin, cello and piano, Ars Nova op. 67 for soprano saxophone and piano, and Coda op. 39 (1976) for SATB saxophone quartet. Dr. Noon is currently chairman of the Music History Department and chairman of the Composition Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.


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