Publisher's number: 23818
Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring: cl-b tpt trb mall db
Remarks: Originally composed for tenor sax November 1999 for Arno Bornkamp with financial support from the Dutch Performing Arts Fund. The world premiere took place at a concert called ‘Who’s afraid of…” at Vredenburg in Utrecht, February 2, 2000. After a performance by Arno in July 2000 at the World Sax Congress in Montreal, Grab it! became a repertoire piece and by request arranged for other instruments and combinations. Growing up in the 60s with blues, jazz and rock, American music had a strong impact.
In Grab it! I tried to explore the ‘no-man’s-land’ between speech and music. Speech has melody and rhythm. I found out that the melodic and rhythmic qualities of speech often increase when people get emotional. Grab It! is based on original speech from life-sentenced prisoners. Their verbal aggression matches the harsh sound of the tenor sax. I composed Grab it! as a duet, a ‘battle’ if you like, for tenor sax and speech grooves, often in unison. The soloist ‘competes’ with a non-stop range of syllables, words and one liners.  
Duration: 9'44"
Year of composition: 1999
Status: fully digitized (real-time delivery)