Piece for Saxophone Quartet (2015)
Approximate Duration = 8 minutes
MIDI version. This piece has yet to be performed.
This is the first of what I hope will be many saxophone quartet pieces. The saxophone quartet in classical music consists of 1 soprano sax, 1 alto sax, 1 tenor sax and 1 baritone sax.
PROGRAM NOTES
My first piece for saxophone quartet explores various compositional techniques I enjoy using. You will hear a couple of canons, parts where repeated phrases of different durations overlap creating interesting rhythmic and harmonic counterpoint, jazzy rhythms, ostinati, and a technique of removing notes from each repeated phrase. After all but one note is left, the space is filled with new material which develops and merges into the next section. There are lots of interesting threads connecting the various sections throughout the piece.