Joy of Sax

Evergreen Cultural Centre will be filled with lots and lots of sax on February 13th. But in the interest of keeping this a family affair, we will be leaving the violins at home.

The saxophone is an instrument that is more part of the wind band than any other large ensemble. It was first patented in 1846 by Adolph Sax. I'm sure, as is the case with many new inventions, there many bugs yet to be worked out and it took some time to be adopted by composers. For this reason, it was never used by the vast majority of orchestral composers. The French Impressionists embraced the instrument and composers like Ravel actually added the instrument to the occasional orchestral piece.

Given that the wind band started coming into prominence toward the end of the nineteenth century and hit the hight of it's popularity in the 20th century, the saxophone was adopted and became an essential colour in the group. Composers like Grainger celebrated the unique vocal quality of the saxophone section sound and utilized this tone colour as a core element to his large ensemble sound. In fact, as Grainger entered the US military, he learned saxophone to play in the US Marine Band.

To use the word saxophone as if it is a single instrument is a bit misleading. The saxophone is actually a family of instruments that have a great range in pitch and sound. The highest, commonly used saxophone is the soprano saxophone. This is common in light pop and jazz fusion. Below that we have the most common saxophone, the alto. Charlie Parker was one of the most famous Alto Sax players. Tenor saxophone is an extremely versatile instrument. It is lower than the alto in pitch and can be heard on recordings of John Coltrane or as a key ingredient in the horn section in many rock and R&B bands. The lowest of the commonly heard saxophones is the Baritone Sax. You might think of the Bari sax as that huge beast that pumps out the low notes in bands like the Tower of Power.

The reality is that Mr. Sax was more completist than this and continued on down (and up) to include instruments at the extremes of the range of hearing. The Bass Saxophone is not heard very often. Percy Grainger worked hard to establish it as an integral member of the sax section in the wind band, but the instrument is very large and does not get used nearly as much as it should. It is not easy to convince a grade 5 student to play an instrument that is quite a bit bigger than he is (although the novelty of being able to have small parties in the case has some appeal!) Below that is the contra-bass saxophone. This is an incredibly large instrument that plays incredibly low. I've never seen this instrument in person, but I have seen pictures of people on step ladders playing them.

The Joy of Sax will feature an almost complete range of the saxophone family from Soprano down to Bass. We are excited to have the Vancouver Saxophone Ensemble sharing the performance with us and they will share the truly unique sound of a large saxophone choir with us. The saxophone is an intensely warm, reedy and vocal instrument. Large groups are rare and this is a sound that you will not want to miss. In addition, PSWE will perform works featuring saxophone either as core elements of the large ensemble sound or as solo instruments. You will hear music by Grainger, Stanhope, and Villani-Côrtes.

Not to be missed, get your tickets now, through your favourite PSWE member or through the Evergreen Cultural Centre. See you there: 8pm, February 13th. ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY!