Sammy Shill (2026) - c. 7'

alto saxophone, viola, and electronics

Perusal Score

00:00 / 07:28

Orchestration
alto saxophone, viola, and electronics

Commissioned by/Premiere
RE:duo (Wilson Poffenberger, alto saxophone; Elsie Bae Han, viola) at Salisbury Congregational Church in Salisbury, VT (June 10, 2026)

Program Notes
This piece comments on the work of The 8-Bit Big Band and, specifically, the concept of the “Great Video Game Songbook” advanced by bandleader Charlie Rosen. He proposes that classic video game themes can iterated on in the same way that the twentieth-century jazz masters iterated on the popular songs of their era. While I appreciate the music of the 8BBB, I am very skeptical of the comparison.

The music, which refutes Rosen’s argument, derives its power from the tension between improvised and instructed notation. Portions of the piece are groove-based and completely improvised according to mood instructions. These sections contrast with fully-notated material that plays on extended techniques and features more specificity in the fixed media part. These tensions reflect the divide between the democratic traditions of jazz and the attempted usurpation of authority by Great Video Game Songbook promoters.