New Arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” Performed by PRISM Quartet on Colombian Tour

Back in the day, when I was a member of the Central High School (“Dear high, dear Central High, Thy mem’ries never die”) Jazz Band, we played an arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns.” That’s when I first fell in love with Mr. Sondheim’s music. All these years later, I came across the sheet music for “Clowns” and decided to re-imagine it in my own all-saxophone adaptation for the PRISM Quartet. I stayed true to the melody, but treated the accompaniment as a series of variations, creating counter-melodies, re-harmonizing sections, and even adding a cadenza for Taimur Sullivan’s soulful bari sax.

PRISM read my version at our Interlochen Sax Institute last summer and I sent the manuscript and recording to Mr. Sondhiem for feedback and requested permission for the Quartet to bring the piece into our repertoire. I’m happy to report that Mr. Sondheim wrote that he loved the arrangement, and even suggested a few tweaks. I must admit to having changed one note in the melody, a nod to Barbara Streisand’s interpretation (see below). He asked me to restore that note, but encouraged me to “trickle in a couple more dissonances” of my own.

So PRISM is off to play my adaptation of “Clowns” on a five city tour of Colombia next month, along with music by Roshanne Etezady, Michael Daugherty, Emma O’Halloran, Robert Schumann, Georg Friedrich Haas, Martin Bresnick, Steve Reich, Jacob TV, and yours truly. I promised Mr. Sondhiem I’d send him a recording of the latest version for final approval. It’s been humbling to correspond with Mr. Sondhiem, one of our greatest living composers, a hero of mine whose music is ever-present in our home. Willa and I play “No One Is Alone” for our little Mae almost almost daily. And I was just re-listening to the original cast album of Sweeney Todd. It is seriously addictive.

Here are some of my favorite renditions of “Send in the Clowns”:
Sara Vaughn
Judi Dench
Barbara Streisand
Frank Sinatra