notes and the consecutive popping sound of slap tongue. The example below shows the

continuous slap-tongue section.

Example 4-. Jungle p. 16, line 6–8.

According to Christian Lauba, speaking of the slap tongues found here: “Not only

do I give them a linguistic content (a sense of diction or phrasing) and form but I use

them as expressive elements” (Umble 2000, 258).

In Chopin’s Sonata for Piano no. 2 in B flat minor op. 35, the famous “Funeral

March” of its third movement and “Finale-Presto” of the fourth movement both have a

very similar texture and the sense of stormy breath-taking driving. “Only after having

written this piece, did I notice the similarity between this work and the final movement of

Chopin’s second sonata,” said Christian Lauba (Umble 2000, 258).

TãdjTajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan (figure 4-5), is a mountainous

country in Central Asia. It borders with Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west,

Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People’s Republic of China to the east. Tajikistan also lies

adjacent to Pakistan but is separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Most of

Tajikistan’s population belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, who shares culture and history

with the Iranian peoples and speak the Persian language (officially referred to as Tajiki in

Tajikistan). Once part of the Samanid Empire, Tajikistan became a constituent republic of

the Soviet Union in the twentieth century, known as the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic

(Tajik SSR).

Figure 4-1. Tajikistan and Central Asia.(http://www.reliefweb.int/mapc/cis/reg/cau/caucia.html)

In the first book of Neuf Études, the four etudes have quite clear aims of

developing certain techniques and the content of the four compositions stays within a

certain degree of simplicity, which by no means implies easy. Tãdj is the first etude of the

series to which the composer does not assign specific techniques, although it still contains

techniques like quarter-tone vibrato, slap tongue, bisbligando, multiphonics and so on. In

addition, it is the first etude with an extended length of twelve pages with a total

performing time of eight minutes, which is two or even three times the length of any of

the first four etudes. The complexity of the content also lifts the etude out of the frame of

a study or an etude-like composition and makes the etude incline more toward a concert

piece. The constant switching demands extended techniques, similar to the way Liszt’s

Études d’Exécution Transcendante differs from the earlier concert piano etudes; the work

does not offer enough repeated patterns or exercises and makes the etude drift further

from its original definition and more toward a concert piece.

Because of its length, this etude is divided into several sections with different

textures, which gives the audience the impression of a form of fast-slow-fast, contrary to

Lauba’s common approach of slow-fast-slow in other etudes such as Balafon, Savane,

and Gyn.

Tãdj is based on three modes:

The beginning of Tãdj evokes the music which is played in Tãdjikistan or Iran

where you can find three modes in the same song: our occidental mode, the

pentatonic scale (Chinese mode) and the Arabic mode with 1/3 and 1/4 tones.4-3

4-3 Christian Lauba, e-mail to author, February 14, 2009.

Example 4-. Tãdj p. 1, line 1–3.

The whole first page is mainly composed of only two notes: the D (tonic) and

the A (dominant) in a modal system, which quickly establishes the musical traits from

middle eastern and central Asia. The strict definitions and articulation of different

attacks are very important through the entire piece. Especially in the first pages, the

nuances of the subtle differences within each of the different articulations are so vital.

They are not only the languages of the etudes but also the expressions of the phrases.

Jean-Marie Londeix has suggested the saxophonist play the first seven lines while

circular breathing (Umble 2000, 258).

Gyn

As notated on the first page of the score, Gyn is the “etude based upon the study

of attack and resonance.” The main foci of techniques in this etude are multiphonics and

bisbligando, although some extremely wide interval leaps, along with contrasting

articulations and extremely dynamic changes, are also extremely challenging to the

performer.

Half of the piece is devoted to bisbligando, which is the very subtle timbre trill. The numeration, (or “rhythmization” by Londeix) of the bisbligando, which