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Baroque music has been part of the saxophone repertoire in one form or another since the instruments creation, as it so happened to coincide with the Baroque revival. ‘It was Mendelssohn's promotion of the St Matthew Passion in 1829 which marked the first public "revival" of Bach and his music’, either through studies or repertoire the music of the baroque period has had an important role in the development of the majority of all saxophonists today. However the question remains. What function does this music have for a modern instrumentalist and how should this music be used or performed by a saxophonist?
Many accolades have been given of saxophone performances of Baroque music.
From the Aurelia saxophone quartets extensive reviews of the Art of Fugue ‘Fugue in C of Dog’, to Henk Van Twillerts widely accepted and successful Bach Cello suites on Baritone Saxophone, carrying through to more jazz style interpretations by Quintessence saxophone quintet and The modern jazz quartet.
It is not unusual that the ‘transcription’ is an important part of the repertoire of a saxophonist. The saxophone did not have the introduction that was originally intended by Adolphe Sax who intended the instrument as an orchestral instrument that would help to blend the woodwind and brass sections yet have a soloistic nature as well. Berlioz, a close friend and advocate of the saxophone stated:
“an instrument whose tone colour is between that of the brass and the woodwinds.
But it even reminds one, though more remotely, of the sound of the strings. I think its main advantage is the greatly varied beauty in its different possibilities of expression. At one time deeply quiet, at another full of emotion; dreamy, melancholic, sometimes with the hush of an echo.... I do not know of any instrument having this specific tone-quality, bordering on the limits of the audible."
However the saxophone found its way into the French military and marching bands, taking over a large majority of the tuba lines, due to the fact that the saxophone (bass) was a much easier instrument to march with; the bass sax being the first sax in which Adolphe Sax invented. With this the saxophone lost its opportunity to become its creators dream and hence Adolph Sax decided to start the first saxophone class at the Paris Conservatoire. Along with having many works written for the saxophone, Sax began to transcribe for the saxophone in order to help promote the instrument in the classical genre. As so happens, the release of the saxophone in 1844 at the Paris Industrial Exhibition, was a fantastic success due to the first performance of Berlioz’s
own arrangement of his Chant Sacre.
‘This first public performance of the saxophone occurred two years before Sax’s patent for the instrument. For the purpose of demonstrating these new instruments, Berlioz arranged a simple choral piece of his own that he had composed approximately fifteen years previously. The Chant sacré, in this rendering, was a sextet scored for three brasses and three woodwinds and included the inventor himself playing the B-flat bass saxophone.’
“The process of transcription is not new to saxophonists, since the instrument was invented in the 1840s and it took some time for the solo repertoire to grow.”
The first solo repertoire for the saxophone appeared early on in the saxophones life by composers such as Singelee, Demersseman, Chic and Savari, however there was still a shortage of performance pieces and works to expose the instrument to new more prolific composers, therefore performers did arrangements of popular classical music. The repertoire did not begin to grow until people such as Elisa Hall, Marcel Mule and Sigurd Racher, started having works written for them and commissioning composers for new pieces.
It is interesting to note that transcribed music is not just a ready source of repertoire for the saxophonist but also an indespensible source for pedagogy.
However it is a highly flamed debate, performing transcriptions especially baroque music on the saxophone, for baroque music largely consists of music for the church
and the saxophone an instrument that was once described as an instrument of satan, with its connection to jazz the saxophone has been given a less then pure stigma and this can lead to much tension amongst public, performer and critic.