Author ORCID Identifier
Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
DMA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
School of Music
Committee Chair
Jeffrey Siegfried
Committee Co-Chair
Jennifer Walker
Committee Member
Jennifer Walker
Committee Member
Robert Sears
Committee Member
Beth Royall
Abstract
This document chronicles my process of commissioning and recording five new works by Mexican composers. To contextualize this experience, I provide a brief introduction of Mexican contemporary music history, an overview of second-hand accounts of the commissioning process, my personal experience of this process, and my assessment of the impact these works could have on the classical saxophone repertoire. As I have reflected on my own experience with historical and contemporary accounts of the commissioning process, it has become clear that personal connections between composers and performers and the patronage or funding linked to those relationships are just as important in influencing artistic outcomes as what we might easily think of as “pure” aesthetic choices. With that in mind, the secondary aim of this document is to provide a practical how-to manual for any artist hoping to commission and record an album. Accordingly, I detail my experiences surrounding the pre-production and post-production stages of the recording process. Overall, this dissertation outlines the events and challenges of a project that produced an album of original saxophone music, written generously for me, from notable Mexican composers Javier Torres Maldonado (b.1968), Enrico Chapela Barba (b. 1974), Ana Lara Zavala (b.1959), LiliAurora Carrillo Madrigal (b.1993), and Arturo Fuentes (b.1975).
Recommended Citation
Santana, Andres Efrain, "COMMISSIONING AND RECORDING PROJECT OF NEW WORKS FOR SAXOPHONE FOCUSED ON PROMOTING MEXICAN COMPOSERS AND EDUCATING FUTURE COMMISSIONING SAXOPHONISTS" (2025). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 12891.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/12891