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Pieces every saxophonist should own.

20K views 64 replies 35 participants last post by  Dannel 
#1 ·
I was thinking about this while ordering some new music.
I want some more ideas of stuff to buy, and I figured we could establish a running list of standards and what not.

It really can be anything, from the Eccles Sonata to the Maslanka Sonata, just anything you feel is a vital part of our repertoire!
 
#48 ·
Would Stars & Stripes be out of place for this thread? This happens to be what I am working on now. Although not on the sax, I love Volodos playing it, especially the piccolo section - incredible -

Also, are there any good youtube videos of the aforementioned pieces?

-John
 
#53 ·
I can understand what Jordan is thinking - what would be a standardized classical sax repertoire - however, using that limitation means that a performer has no experience in the baroque and classical styles - that wouldn't make a well rounded musician.

Playing those styles allows us to be "missionaries" of a sort- and exposing the general public to classical saxophone. It certainly more exposed that when I was in college, but most "concertgoers" that I meet, have no idea that there is such a thing as classical saxophone - outside of concert band.
 
#54 ·
I'm not saying you should have no experience in these styles. I just personally would never program a work from the Baroque or Classical period on a recital. Bach I would do on a church program, but why not use something like the Guy de Lioncourt, "Trois Medlodies Greogriennes"? These are beautiful works for alto saxophone and organ/piano and they are perfect for a church service, in a baroque style, and are also original works for saxophone.

As far as being missionaries for the saxophone, I've never won any converts playing transcriptions. The most enthusiastic responses to my playing have always come from people excited about the original repertoire they heard at a concert or recital. It requires careful planning to create a program of pieces accessible to the audience and still musically solid, but I've found it's well worth it.

So pieces I'd suggest every saxophonist should own would include:

Concertos:
Glazunov, Ibert, Milhaud, Debussy, D'Indy, Martin, Larsson, Von-Koch, Dahl, Husa, Maurice, Tomasi.

Concert-Pieces:
Albright Sonata
Yoshimatsu, Fuzzy Bird Sonata
Harbison, San Antonio
Zwilich, Episodes
Heiden, Sonata
Denisov, Sonata
Creston, Sonata
Desenclos, Prelude, Cadence, and Finale
Bolcom, Lilith


Chamber Music:
Webern, Op.22
Laitman, I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Hindemith, Trio
Eychenne, Cantilene and Danse
Denisov, Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Cello
Hartley, Lyric Suite
 
#58 ·
I'm not saying you should have no experience in these styles. I just personally would never program a work from the Baroque or Classical period on a recital. Bach I would do on a church program, but why not use something like the Guy de Lioncourt, "Trois Medlodies Greogriennes"? These are beautiful works for alto saxophone and organ/piano and they are perfect for a church service, in a baroque style, and are also original works for saxophone.

As far as being missionaries for the saxophone, I've never won any converts playing transcriptions. The most enthusiastic responses to my playing have always come from people excited about the original repertoire they heard at a concert or recital.
I find this interesting, as many of the most enthusiastic reactions to my performances have been inspired by transcriptions that I have stolen shamelessly from the repertoire of other instruments. I know this puts me in a very small minority of academic saxophonists (fortunately this fact has bothered me less and less ever since I became a full-time professional saxophonist), but personally I find the vast majority of the saxophone repertoire (especially that which the community has agreed on as "standard") to be absolutely nauseating. This is not to say that there is no value in much of it, or to say that there isn't a small handful of truly magnificent and monumental original works. These are few and far between, however, and are the ones I would argue that every saxophonist should own, not for their academic value (as I can't think of anything that can be learned by studying one piece that can't be learned by studying another, and if you study the saxophone seriously you can't avoid becoming familiar with the repertoire through recordings and performances), but for the quality of their composition and the artistic value in performing them. There is a reason our repertoire is largely unknown to the average non-saxo musician. Furthermore, the fact that he or she may be able to name one or two pieces of our repertoire is not due to the true quality of such pieces but to the relentless persistence with which we perform them. The unfortunate (and in some ways fortunate) reality is that because our instrument is so very young, we simply don't have the number of truly great composers in our repertoire that most other instrumentalists enjoy. For this reason, it should be our constant goal to inspire great composers to write for us, and to display the finest possible artistic mastery in performing both the best works of our original repertoire, as well as the best works the modern world has known, regardless of who or what they were written for. I might add that we are not the only instrumentalists that spend much time performing and studying transcriptions.
 
#61 ·
Theisen Sonata
Wanamaker Sonata deus sax machina
Feld (pretty much any of his music)
Villa-Lobos Fantasia
All of the staples that people have mentioned in earlier posts (i.e. Creston, Heiden, Ibert, Glazounov, Martin, Desenclos, Husa, Denisov, Muczynski, etc.)
Larsson Concerto

As far as methods/etudes are concerned, I believe that the Ferling etudes, Londeix's "Hello! Mr. Sax" and Nouvelles Etudes Variees, Rascher's "Top Tones" and "Do You Listen?" are essential for every saxophonist to own and study thoroughly.
 
#62 ·
As the OP, I feel like I should chime in on the transcription debate in regards to this specific thread.
Careful review would reveal that the thread is titled "Pieces every saxophonist should OWN." Not "Pieces every saxophonist should perform in front of an audience of nonsaxophonists."

That being said, whether or not someone feels transcriptions should be performed in place of original saxophone repertoire, I feel that they can be important to the growth of a saxophonist musically. Therefore I think that any transcription that someone thinks is beneficial to a saxophonist deserves mention in this thread.
 
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