Sax Quartet charts for a Clarinet Quartet

[Gandalfe]

I'm having my sax quartet guyz bring their clarinets to the next Professor Gadget Sax Quartet practice. I'm gonna try playing some sax quartet charts with this instrumentation:

• Soprano clarinet (Bb)
• Alto clarinet (Eb)
• Bass clarinet (Bb)
• Contra-alto clarinet (EEb)

I'd luv to hear if anyone has tried this before. I worry that the alto clarinet will be too soft, otherwise the volumes should be fine. I luv to hear of other groups who've done this or better yet video'd the result.

I know I'm just lazy, not wanting to transcribe the quartets to work with the Leblanc BBb contra-bass clarinet (paperclip) that I already have.

 

[Carl H.]

I'm having my sax quartet guyz bring their clarinets to the next Professor Gadget Sax Quartet practice. I'm gonna try playing some sax quartet charts with this instrumentation:

• Soprano clarinet (Bb)
• Alto clarinet (Eb)
• Bass clarinet (Bb)
• Contra-alto clarinet (EEb)

I'd luv to hear if anyone has tried this before. I worry that the alto clarinet will be too soft, otherwise the volumes should be fine. I luv to hear of other groups who've done this or better yet video'd the result.

I know I'm just lazy, not wanting to transcribe the quartets to work with the Leblanc BBb contra-bass clarinet (paperclip) that I already have.

Doing the double transposition to bass clef and BBb is probably easier than playing the beast. I tried writing parts out once, doing the transposition in my head was faster. (playing on the other hand...)

 

[pete]

I'd worry more that the contralto clarinet isn't loud enough.

Considering we've both probably played identical Leblanc Bb contras, you know that the contra doesn't have half the volume of, say, a Bb bass sax. I can't see an Eb contra clarinet having as much volume as a bari.

I think the Bb clarinet and Bb soprano sax are almost identical, in terms of how much usable volume you have, but the tone is a lot different. And you've got, what, a 5th of the clarinet that you're not using.

I have transposed sax quartets for clarinet groups and I generally have given the alto sax part to the Bb clarinet. If it it's insanely high, I can throw in a Eb sopranino clarinet to preserve some of the "color" of a Bb soprano sax going into overdrive, otherwise it's possible that you could do with

* Bb clarinet (soprano sax part)
* Bb clarinet (alto sax part)
* Bb bass clarinet (tenor sax part)
* Bb bass clarinet (bari sax part)

However, a clarinet ensemble with the instrumentation you'll have is interesting, visually.