Hajime, Sonata for Alto Saxophone

program note:

Hajime, Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano draws inspiration from the novel South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. The story follows the life of a character named Hajime (which means "to begin" in Japanese) through a lonely childhood, exciting adolescence, an estranged and then tumultuous adulthood. Murakami is credited as a pioneer of the magic realism genre. It is characterized by fantastical events that happen unexpectedly and without reason, leaving the reader with more questions than answers. The form encourages us to pick up, hold, and observe the unknown - an apsect that has informed the composition of this piece. Commissioned by Marco Wong.