Duration: c. 19'

DETAILS
AVAILABLE from your favorite sheet music dealer, or direct from Presser.

YOUTUBE of Todd Groves tenor saxophone and Francesca Hurst piano, all-Dorff concert at University of Delaware, May 2019.

PROGRAM NOTES
In 2002, I became the owner of Tritone Press & Tenuto Publications which has some nice treasures for saxophone, including some of the first pieces for tenor or bari to enter the repertoire. I began to think about classical saxophone playing again, having started musical life as a saxophonist before putting more time into composing and bass clarinet. In fact, I started composing in high school only to create saxophone repertoire to play myself, and then got sidetracked.

I kept missing saxophone more and more through 2002 and 2003 and thought about tenor saxophone as being my "real voice" even though I'd always been an alto player. In July 2003 I went to the World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis - the first time in 25 years that I'd immersed myself back into the saxophone world. I got impulsive and bought a tenor there and started to practice every day, just like in college; and I knew it was time to start writing for saxophone again, now to start building the tenor repertoire. What an amazing instrument without enough literature!

At the time, I was learning about the body's neural nodes (sometimes called chakras), which are 7 locations in the body serving as primary junctions in our nervous system. In holistic disciplines like yoga and reiki, each chakra is believed to regulate aspects of our spiritual and psychological energy. This inspired me to write a suite about chakras, with each chakra's personality suggesting the mood and flow of the music's seven continuous connected movements.

last updated May 4, 2026
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