Barry Cockcroft

I have just finished the score for my composition Rock Me! It is now available for sale through Reed Music (look under advanced tab). I wrote this piece at the end of 2007 when I was undertaking a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. As with many of my pieces I started out with an improvisation and gradually shaped it into a permanent unchanging composition. You can have a listen to one of the first iterations of the piece from the first performance in 2007. I have mostly played the piece on alto, but it works very well on tenor too – any sax should be fine. It is a little more difficult than I first intended, especially looking at the score but it fits under the fingers with no great complications. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the piece is the rapid tonguing and the relentless nature of the piece.

I performed this piece in its near final form at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok in July and was pleased that Kenneth Tse was able to attend the performance. I wrote the piece for Kenneth and look forward to hearing his first performance of it.