Aaron Perrine’s music has grown in popularity and critical acclaim since his 2005 composition April became a finalist in the first Frank Ticheli Composition Contest. Perrine is only the ninth composer to earn two Sousa/American Bandmasters Association/Ostwald Awards since the creation of that honor in 1956. However, there is a lack of published scholarly material on Perrine and his music. The subsequent void between his impact on the repertoire of the wind band and the lack of available resources precipitates the need for this document.
The goal of this study is to examine Perrine and his 2018 composition, It Has to Be Beautiful: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble. The resultant document includes a biography of Perrine; an analysis; a conductor’s guide to addressing technical issues, interpretation, and gestures; and a soloist’s guide to address the technical and interpretive challenges within It Has to Be Beautiful.
This study was prepared with the help of multiple interview subjects: Dr. Kenneth Tse, for whom the concerto was written; Dr. Richard Mark Heidel, who conducted the North American premiere; Dr. Timothy Diem, whose personal story is intertwined in the programmatic nature of the concerto; and the composer of the concerto, Dr. Aaron Perrine, who was interviewed multiple times.
Lastly, this study presents information on Perrine’s compositional style and aesthetic, which may also be germane to other compositions in his catalogue, for wind band or otherwise. The many interviews undertaken for this study resulted in the sharing of previously unpublished information which will prove useful to composers, conductors, and others interested in Perrine, as well as those composers who identify with his compositional processes or product, regardless of genre or the ensembles with which they work.