Category Archives: Saxophone Chamber Music

Quintet for Alto Saxophone and Strings – SAX PART ONLY

RM577e Sax Part Only for Quintet for Alto Saxophone & Strings Goldstein ALTO SAX/STRING QUARTET
RM577e Sax Part Only for Quintet for Alto Saxophone & Strings Goldstein ALTO SAX/STRING QUARTET
Digital Download eScore Part Only
Composer: Perry Goldstein
Composed: Duration: 18 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax & Other Instruments
ISMN: 979-0-720083-83-4 Catalogue: RM577
Level: E Country: United States

This is for the saxophone part only. The full piece is available with parts and score here:

Quintet for Alto Saxophone and Strings

Program note:

Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet (2006) features three movements of wildly different character, all influenced by quite different kinds of music.  The first movement, “Bright and exuberant,” is simultaneously heroic and breezy.  Undulating near-minimalist figures in the strings accompany overarching melodies played by the saxophone.  The B section within this A-B-A’ form is more languid, while the outer A sections contain music that is buoyant and striving.

I think of the tune at the center of movement 2 (“Heartfelt and singing”) as an urban spiritual.  Though simple, it first finds itself in a bluesy if somewhat chromatically tortured chorale-like setting.  Four variations follow.  The first preserves the pace of the saxophone melody in a setting of pizzicato strings and short lamenting outbursts. The second variation poses quintuplet perpetual-motion arabesques against the melody while the cello plays with and against the quintuplets in rhythmic syncopation.  The third variation spins an uptempo jazz waltz out of the material while the fourth sets the tune lamentingly in surprising harmonies in the strings’ upper registers.  A cadenza for the saxophone brings the movement to a somber close.

The third movement is something of a middle-eastern dance, made rhythmically jagged by the everchanging meters.  Marked “Dancing, yet driving,” this movement emulates the A-B-A’ shape of the first.  However, the B section and the coda recapitulate the tune of the first movement, first in a melancholy mood and then in exuberant conclusion.

Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet is dedicated to saxophonist Kenneth Tse and the Escher String Quartet.

 

Mischief

RM1080e Mischief Goldstein SAX QUARTET SATB
RM1080e Mischief Goldstein SAX QUARTET SATB
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Perry Goldstein
Composed: 2011 Duration: 7 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Quartet SATB Level E
ISMN: 979-0-720137-21-6 Catalogue: RM1080
Level: E Country: United States

Mischief

RM1060e Mischief Goldstein ALTO SAX/BASS CLA
RM1060e Mischief Goldstein ALTO SAX/BASS CLA
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Perry Goldstein
Composed: 2011 Duration: 7 mins.
Instrumentation: Bass Clarinet Chamber Music, Sax Alto & Bass Clarinet
ISMN: 979-0-720137-02-5 Catalogue: RM1060
Level: E Country: United States

Silent Night (Gruber)

RM995e Silent Night (Gruber) Firth SAX QUARTET AATB
RM995e Silent Night (Gruber) Firth SAX QUARTET AATB
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Andy Firth
Composed: 2012 Duration: 4 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Quartet AATB Level C
ISMN: 979-0-720129-35-8 Catalogue: RM995
Level: C Country: Australia

This arrangement of the lovely traditional Christmas carol is set in a lush, sometimes romantic style of a quasi-jazz saxophone section. It is packed with interesting harmonic movement and yet always stays true to the original melody that all know and love. The writing is challenging enough to make it interesting and yet it never crosses over into the “too difficult” category that some jazz saxophone section writing can stray in to. The short “Supersax” two thirds the way through is guaranteed to give listeners goose bumps and all in all this chart is sure to be a crowd pleaser no matter where it’s performed.

Drifting Memories

RM523e Drifting Memories Beaugeais SAX QUARTET SATB
RM523e Drifting Memories Beaugeais SAX QUARTET SATB
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Composer: Katia Beaugeais
Composed: 2007 Duration: 13 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Quartet SATB Level E
ISMN: 979-0-720119-80-9 Catalogue: RM523
Level: E Country: Australia

Olfeig

RM535e Olfeig Kay SAX QUARTET AATB
RM535e Olfeig Kay SAX QUARTET AATB
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Martin Kay
Composed: 2009 Duration: 3 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Quartet AATB Level C
ISMN: 979-0-720119-92-2 Catalogue: RM535
Level: C Country: Australia

Twelve

RM969e Twelve Broadstock SAX ENS
RM969e Twelve Broadstock SAX ENS
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Composer: Brenton Broadstock
Composed: 2010 Duration: 14 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Ensemble
ISMN: 979-0-720129-03-7 Catalogue: RM969
Level: D Country: Australia

Bach’s Pianola

RM970e Bach’s Pianola Firth SAX ENS
RM970e Bach’s Pianola Firth SAX ENS
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Andy Firth
Composed: 2012 Duration: 9 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Ensemble
ISMN: 979-0-720129-04-4 Catalogue: RM970
Level: D Country: Australia

The story behind Bach’s Pianola.
J.S Bach is working on a fugue late one night when suddenly a pianola from the 20th Century drops into his room. Bach puts aside the piece he is working on and wanders over to the pianola and sits down. As he begins to pedal he hears music that he’d never imagined-ragtime, waltzes and swing! The more music he hears, the faster he pedals.

He plays the pianola for a few hours and then after nearly destroying the pianola with his energy and untamed enthusiasm, he goes back to writing his fugue. But as he begins to write again, he is unable to block this new and wonderful music he has just heard from his mind and as such begins to incorporate it into his fugue.

Dedicated to Philippe Geiss and the Strasbourg Saxophone Ensemble.
Commissioned by Sax & Co for the XVI World Sax Congress in St Andrews Scotland - 2012.

Includes Score and Parts: sopranino, soprano 1, soprano 2, alto 1, alto 2, alto 3, tenor 1, tenor 2, tenor 3, baritone 1, baritone 2, bass sax

Quartet 3 Rag to Funk

RM247e Quartet 3 From Rag to Funk Spiewak SAX QUARTET SATB
RM247e Quartet 3 From Rag to Funk Spiewak SAX QUARTET SATB
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Tomasz Spiewak
Composed: 2003 Duration: 12 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Quartet SATB Level C
ISMN: 979-0-720083-51-3 Catalogue: RM247
Level: C Country: Australia

Contents: Rag, Blues, Latin Bop, Funk

Performed by Continuum Sax

Olfeig

RM870 Olfeig Kay
RM870 Olfeig Kay
Printed Book
Composer: Martin Kay
Composed: 2009 Duration: 3 mins.
Instrumentation: Bass Clarinet Chamber Music, Piano Chamber Music, Sax & Other Instruments
ISMN: 979-0-720114-67-5 Catalogue: RM870
Level: C Country: Australia