[mdavej]

My sax quartet got a gig at an educational venue. Our typical repertoire is jazz/pop from the swing era to the present. Our pop arrangements are also jazzy in terms of harmony.

Given the venue, I'd like to add some tunes to give a flavor of what quartets sounded like from the invention of the instrument up to the early jazz era (1850-1920) and talk a little bit about the history of the sax. So I'm looking for maybe 4 charts spanning this time. I'm thinking maybe 2 pre and post civil war era, 1 1880-1900-ish and 1 ragtime to represent the 1920's.

We're pretty decent, but our classical chops aren't great, so nothing too difficult either.

Lastly, we're SATB, AATB, or ATTB, so no unusual instrumentation like bass or sopranino.

I've done some research, but the early options are few and far between, and the later ones are overwhelming. Hoping some of you have been in my shoes before and can lend some expertise.

Any suggestions? Extra points for links to cheap/free arrangements.

TIA

 

[LostConn]

I like the music of Jerome Savari. I've played his Saxophone Quintet, but he also wrote a nice Saxophone Quartet, c. 1861. His music is melodic and elegant without being too technically demanding. J.-B. Singelee is another standard choice from this period.

The 1920s would be a little late for ragtime; "Maple Leaf Rag" came out around the turn of the century, and Scott Joplin died in 1917. In any event, "Scott Joplin Portrait" (arr. Bill Holcombe) for sax quartet is an excellent compilation of many of his most famous tunes. It can be a little tricky at times, due to the rhythms, but is great fun to play.

You can find this material at the standard sheet music retailers online.

 

[John Laughter]

In addition to LostConn's excellent suggestion;

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/titl...axophone-quartet-digital-sheet-music/20058290

here are a few free sites. Not sure if you will find the "styles" that you are looking for so I would Google "Saxophone Quartets" and send an email to a few of them about the historic charts. I would imagine one of the groups could head you in the right direction and just might have some free charts;

https://musescore.com/hub/saxophone/quartet?sort=view_count&text=&page=9

https://www.8notes.com/saxophone_quartet/sheet_music/

https://www.bruceevans.net/freebies.htm

http://esquartet.com/repertoire.html

I miss our local college sax quartet. We did well for a few years then for some reason could not find a tenor who was capable reliable so we had to hang it up.

 

[awholley]

As previously stated, Singelee is a solid choice.
The Caryl Florio Quartet is quite nice and fits the bill for historical.
You might also want to look at these... https://imslp.org/wiki/2_Quartets,_Op.23_(Bumcke,_Gustav)

Alan

 

[mdavej]

Good stuff. Found a couple of them. Thanks everybody.