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transcriptions of classical music for sax (or other wind instruments).

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Saxophilist 
#1 ·
I am an amateur wind player who always enjoyed playing classical
music for solo wind instrument accompanied by piano. I still play classical music, mostly with my EWI these days, a couple of times a week with pianist friends. I moved to EWI
because it's so much easier to play well (good sound, perfect intonation, special fingering to get around easier.) The flute, oboe, clarinet, violin sounds are all pretty good, and none of my playing partners has any problems with my using the EWI.

I was always frustrated that a lot of music i liked didn't work on wind
instruments (like the bach violin sonatas), and some of those for flute or oboe exceeded my
playing chops, (like some of bach flute sonatas).

I have gotten proficient on the notation program Finale so i have been doing a lot of transcribing to make classical pieces as easy as possible to play on wind instruments, and the EWI. I have moved pieces like Bach's 6 violin sonatas into keys that work for the range of wind instruments. I have also transcribed some of Bach's flute sonatas into 'easier' keys, and i have made a version of Bachs fifteen 3 part inventions (sinfonias) with the top voice for wind instr, and the other 2 for the piano.

I am having a lot of fun playing this great music that i thought i never would be able to play because of the key where it was originally written. Attached is the 2nd movement of Bach's sonata for violin and piano, bwv 1016, that was originally in E maj, and went down to A below the staff.
It is moved to F and goes from Bb,to high F- the complete range of the sax.

(When i use the EWI, piano players can play their part on a real piano. When i use flute, or sax, the pianist can use the original piano score, but has to use an electronic keyboard with the transposing button. Most piano players have one of those nowadays).
 

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