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You may not have heard a sax quartet
before. Obviously four saxes - a standard quartet like the
Salamanders
has a soprano, alto, tenor and
baritone sax. However, the combinations are endless as most sax players
play at least two of the four sizes. The
Salamanders
have arrangements written for two altos and two tenors / soprano, two
altos and a tenor and even an absurd arrangement of "If you knew Susie"
which starts on three sopranos and an alto. We have even been know to
play "The Blue Danube" on three flutes and a clarinet (but don't tell
anyone). We all have our specialities
- the "standard" line up for the
Salamanders
is...
John - soprano
Andrew - alto
Clive - tenor
Pete - baritone
However... If Andrew is playing trad.
on clarinet then John takes the second part on alto. Pete takes
the soprano part in the classical pieces so John moves to tenor and
Clive takes over on baritone (I'm really sorry I miss the bass part to Pachabel's Canon, Clive). And so on. Watching the Salamanders rehearse
has been compared to a combination of a wrestling match and an obstacle
race taking place in an exploding music shop. It is so surprising that
it seems to go so slickly when we perform.
The most useful feature of a sax quartet is its versatility. There are
very few styles of music a sax quartet cannot play - from the gentlest
string quartet to the most raucous rock music. Quiet, loud, gentle,
jazzy, slow and smooth, frantic and brassy - a sax quartet can do it
all. We have all of the delicacy of a string quartet when we need to
but, believe me, the neighbours know all about it when we pull out all
of the stops. All of this makes a sax quartet ideal for background/foyer
music as well as concert style performances.
We made these sound clips one hot
Sunday afternoon to try prove this to you. Maybe we were exaggerating
things a little but we certainly had a entertaining time recording them.
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