A Tune From Childhood (for Alto Saxophone)

For alto saxophone solo. The materials of this work are drawn from fragments of folk tunes I heard over twenty years ago when I was living in the northwestern part of China. What struck me then was that, unlike most Chinese folk music, the folk music of that region is not based on a pentatonic [five-note] scale. Instead, it has a seven-note scale similar to the Mixolydian church mode. I wondered what it would be like if one were to use this melodic pattern in a work for Western instruments and whether it would lose its Asian quality. — Bright Sheng