Everyone should hear the Creston Sonata -- at least once

It is curious that I write this as a person butchers the second movement on You Tube.  Since Paul Creston (Guiseppe Guttoveggio for those of us fortunate enough to study under Dr. Kenneth Fischer) wrote more than one sonata (two from what I've gathered), I need to clarify that I'm listening to the one for Alto Saxophone (Op. 19).  Perhaps it is my bias as a saxphonist, but I can hear the Sonata in every other work I've heard by Creston.  I mainly hear harmonic similarities (perhaps enough to be quotes), but there are some melodic hits in his other pieces; Concertino for Marimba for example.  Truth be told, I think the harmonic similarities only exist because of the similar harmonic language, and the melodies are simply outlining the various harmonies underneath.

The beauty of Creston's harmonic language is his ability to provide V-I to his audience without us hearing "boring old Common Practice V-I that we had beat into our heads since the ancients thought it sounded cool in the 1400s--" though I do enjoy that V-I as well.  Creston makes use of whole-tone tonalities in a most curious way.  For me, he doesn't use the whole-tone scale to destroy our sense of tonic.  Rather, he uses it to, for lack of a better term, modulate to new tonics.  Now, for readers of mine versed in music theory, I'm not saying you lose the sense of tonic when Creston utilizes the whole-tone scale, I'm simply saying that's not his purpose.  He uses it as a tool to get to where his ear tells him to go--just like Bach would hop around the circle using V7-I progressions--or the like how the Romantics would pound the note they wanted forever then drift off into their overstated tonic using what's now called a common tone modulation.

I have to stop myself and refocus for a moment; otherwise, this blog post will become a treatise on music theory by a washed up theory student with no specific measures to cite to defend his position.  I have yet to hear an acceptable recording of the second movement of the Sonata, Op. 19 on YouTube.  Eugene Rousseau has a recording of the entire Sonata on his album Saxophone Masterpieces.  It is by far the best recording I've heard of the Sonata.  The second movement is the easiest of the three to play in terms of sheer finger technique.  In my opinion, it contains the most music of the three, and it bothers me to see video after video of YouTube folk stabbing at it with commenters singing praises for jobs well done.  Perhaps they mean well done in terms of incinerating meat.

On the other hand, I'm happy to see saxophonists attempting to learn Creston's great work.  One hundred years from now when my existence has long been over and will the existences of all of the saxophonists I know, I hope there will be performances of the second movement of the Sonata.  Where is my recording of the Second Movement?  Why am I not YouTube making my stab?  I performed it as a sophomore in college.  I am well aware of my inadequacies as a saxophonist.  I will not insult Creston's great work by making my attempt publicly available.

I do encourage you to seek out Rousseau's recording of Creston's Sonata, Op. 19.  It's not off-the-wall avant garde "music."  Even if you have no ear for music before 1950 or have ever listened to a saxophone outside of a bar, I think you will enjoy it.  Post comments on your experience with hearing the Sonata, I am most interested in reading them.  I warn you, so far I haven't heard an acceptable recording of it on YouTube.  I hope you will not use that as your only tool for hearing Creston's work.