My experiments with instrument choirs

[Gandalfe]

I put together my first sax choir and clarinet choir. I've written about the result and provided some YouTubeage here: http://gandalfe.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!51AA828BCB20646!7305.entry?&_c02_vws=1

I think I'll stick to sax quartets. But we have a gig coming up in September where we are going to have a duel between my sax quartet and a brass quintet. We'll be set up side by side at the Ballard Locks in the Seattle area from 2-4 PM on Saturday, 4 September.

So here's my question. Does anyone have a suggestion of a number that these two groups could do together? The Brass quintet will be doing mostly Beatle stuff with some marches and classical stuff thrown in. The Sax quartet will be doing some Philip Glass, Bohemian Rhapsody, Swing and classical numbers. So there's no limit of genre of music.

 

[Chris J]

Excellent! thanks for sharing

Hope you don't feel it is too mean a comment - but I couldn't help smiling in the sax clip about the two adjacent foot tappers, keeping their own time, not necessarily being the same as each other, or anybody else.

We once had a guest conductor, Guy Woolfenden, do a masterclass and next day conduct one of his pieces for us (Gallimaufrey) in a concert. He simply would not tolerate anybody tapping their feet in his line of sight.

It was a truely awesome experience. With tact, humour and terror all combined - he got exactly what he wanted from us in a way we had no idea we could deliver!

Chris

 

[Gandalfe]

After 20 harrumph years away from our instruments Suzy and I started back up. We had a new director who actually stood on Suzy and another clarinetists tapping foot!

Suzy has since learned not to tap and I'm getting closer to that everyday. BTW, the director was eventually fired for coming to band practice both late and drunk... repeatedly. It was a bad time for the band. Awesome musician yes; good people skills, not so much.

 

[pete]

You both could do an arrangement of 4'33" by Glass. Should be fairly easy to arrange.

I don't recall any other pieces that happen to use both sax quartet and brass quintet, together. I think the biggest problem is that you'd have too many melody instruments and possibly too many instruments doubling the same part.

I think it might be possible to adapt one of Peter Schickele's Monochrome pieces (these are works for multiple instruments of the same type, e.g. Monochrome II is for 7 trombones, Monochrome III is for 9 clarinets, etc.).

What might be fun is try to find something that calls for antiphonal brass groups. I think your groups might be able to pull that off nicely.

 

[Roger Aldridge]

This isn't an exact fit for what you're asking about....but I recently finished a new piece for 11 wind instruments: woodwind quintet (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, bass clarinet), saxophone quartet (SATB), trumpet, and french horn. It's based on an 11-tone harmonic complex and has a lot of freedom.

Here's a link -- http://www.amc.net/RogerMAldridge

The title of the piece is Ups and Downs.

Roger

 

[Roger Aldridge]

Pete,

4'33'' is John Cage.

Roger

 

[pete]

Pete,

4'33'' is John Cage.

Roger

Yah. I realized that about an hour after I wrote it .

Still: an arrangement for quartet + quintet should be fairly easy ....

 

[Merlin]

I put together my first sax choir and clarinet choir. I've written about the result and provided some YouTubeage here: http://gandalfe.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!51AA828BCB20646!7305.entry?&_c02_vws=1

I think I'll stick to sax quartets. But we have a gig coming up in September where we are going to have a duel between my sax quartet and a brass quintet. We'll be set up side by side at the Ballard Locks in the Seattle area from 2-4 PM on Saturday, 4 September.

So here's my question. Does anyone have a suggestion of a number that these two groups could do together? The Brass quintet will be doing mostly Beatle stuff with some marches and classical stuff thrown in. The Sax quartet will be doing some Philip Glass, Bohemian Rhapsody, Swing and classical numbers. So there's no limit of genre of music.

I toyed with the idea of forming a small concert band type of ensemble at one time.

The concept was to take a doubling saxophone quartet, a woodwind quintet, a brass quintet, string bass and a percussionist and condense wind ensemble rep to fit.

Ideally you'd have this as your available instrumentation:

flute/picc
oboe/EH
clarinet/Eb clarinet
bassoon
french horn

soprano sax/alto sax/flute/clarinet
alto sax/flute/clarinet
tenor sax/flute/clarinet
baritone sax/flute/clarinet/bass clarinet

trumpet/cornet/flugel
trumpet/cornet/flugel
french horn
trombone
tuba/bass trombone

string bass/electric bass
drums, mallets, etc.

Add a conductor (if necessary!) and you've got a total of 17 bodies.

 

[Gandalfe]

I toyed with the idea of forming a small concert band type of ensemble at one time.

The concept was to take a doubling saxophone quartet, a woodwind quintet, a brass quintet, string bass and a percussionist and condense wind ensemble rep to fit.

...

Add a conductor (if necessary!) and you've got a total of 17 bodies.

The size of a big band sans vocalist and director. Interesting.

 

[SOTSDO]

Excellent! thanks for sharing

...Hope you don't feel it is too mean a comment - but I couldn't help smiling in the sax clip about the two adjacent foot tappers, keeping their own time, not necessarily being the same as each other, or anybody else.

...Chris

There is a hospital here in Houston that is running a commercial, in heavy rotation for the past six months or so, that features (ostensibly) a symphonic group performing in tight unison under the tutelage of a white-bearded muffin conductor. One of the shots in the commercial is of a row of performer's feet, all of which are beating time and several of which are out of sync.

 

[Gandalfe]

There is a hospital here in Houston that is running a commercial, in heavy rotation for the past six months or so, that features (ostensibly) a symphonic group performing in tight unison under the tutelage of a white-bearded muffin conductor. One of the shots in the commercial is of a row of performer's feet, all of which are beating time and several of which are out of sync.

I like to use a felt drop cloth for my quartets and Big Band sax section to hide those distracting feets.

I really don't want to do another sax or clarinet choir though because quartets are so much easier to run and sound is much better. The sax choir had people who are unable to tune their instruments to even one note and others who have no ear for intonation at all. As such, that is a very unsatisfying experience. The clarinet choir was hard to put together and half that choir had doublers from the sax section who had to relearn the clarinet fingerings. It didn't make for a pleasant sound to my ears.