Dangerous Coats (2020)

Rudman_DangerousCoats_2020-05-01_Score

Dangerous Coats was inspired by a poem of the same name by Sharon Owens. The poem talks about how women weren’t allowed to have pockets because they might use them to carry seditious materials. At the end, the author encourages women to start sewing “dangerous coats full of pockets and sedition.” It led me to envision a growing cabal of women gleefully sneaking around with their pockets filled with colorful flyers about equality and similarly ‘treasonous’ ideas. 

The opening music seeks to convey the energetic rush I imagined such women would feel.  A contrasting, slower section follows. A bit darker, perhaps it represents the quiet tragedy of an unfulfilled life, a life pretending to be something you are not. But then the original materials returns, sweeping forward with irrepressible excitement to the end.    

The work was commissioned by Joshua Thomas and a consortium of saxophonists/teachers through the Smart Repertoire Project, an initiative designed to cultivate contemporary repertoire for developing saxophonists. 

Commissioned by Joshua Thomas as part of the Smart Repertoire Project, and supported by a consortium of 49 saxophonists: 

Roy Allen Jr. 

Dana Booher 

Brina Bourliea 

Carolyn Bryan 

Brianna Buck 

Griffin Campbell 

Joe D’Aleo 

Dannel Espinoza 

Cathy Ettle 

Matt Evans 

Don Fabian 

Susan Fancher 

Jennifer Foret 

Paul Forsyth 

Andrew Gaffey 

Jeffrey Heisler 

Brian Ho 

Andrew Hosler 

Jonathan Hulting-Cohen 

Michael Jacobson

Ryan Janus

Ian Jeffress

Sheldon Johnson Jeremy Justeson

Jacob Kilford

Jason Kush

Eric Lau

Jeff Loeffert

Margot Music Fund 

Nathan Mensink

Nathan Mertens

Yiannis Miralis

Joseph Murphy 

Doug O’Connor 

Matthew Patnode 

Joshua Pearson 

James Pecsok 

Russell Peterson 

Ken Radnofsky 

James Romain 

Perry Roth 

Thomas Snydacker 

David Stambler 

Matthew Taylor 

Brett Thole 

Brian Utley

Lindsey Welp

Drew Whiting

Lois Hicks-Wozniak