Music of John Duffy On Albany Records

Albany Records has released the latest commercial recording of revered American composer John Duffy entitled We Want Mark Twain. The album features the title work, performed by the Cassatt String Quartet, as well as Duffy’s Saxophone Concerto and Portraits for Orchestra. Commissioned by the Eastman School of Music and composed in 2005, We Want Mark Twain premiered at New York City’s Symphony Space. Based on the writings of Mark Twain and scored for string quartet and narrator, the work reflects the composer’s inspirational kinship he feels with the author. Duffy refers to the piece as a musical journey, in which the musicians play an integral part in the storytelling, literally, as they are called on to yell, sing, stomp their feet and join in with the narrator.

Commissioned by Duke University in 1965, the Saxophone Concerto was dedicated to Stan Getz. Written at the height of the civil rights conflicts of the 1960s, the work’s second movement was composed in memory of four children who were killed by a bomb in Birmingham, AL.

Portraits for Orchestra consists of music for concert, film and theater that Duffy has written over the past 50 years. Commissioned by the Sierra Club and Channel Thirteen in New York City, these short pieces are inspired by certain historical figures and dramatic locales worldwide: Mountains Majesty is an inspirational song about the sweep and beauty of America; Jerusalem was composed for Duffy’s teacher, Solomon Rosowsky, an early pioneer in Palestine; Muhammad Ali evokes the great fighter’s signature rope-a-dope and fast feet with ever shifting meters and fleet, spiky rhythms.

A milestone recording of standout selections of Duffy’s beloved catalogue, We Want Mark Twain is available now on amazon.com or at your favorite music retailer.

John Duffy-Composer Profile

John Duffy
Concerto for Saxophone (2008)
for saxophone and string quintet
2vn.va.vc.db
20’

We Want Mark Twain (2005/2009)
for string quartet and narrator
22’