New Century Saxophone Quartet - Main Street USA (1996)

Main Street USA Since the Saxophone Quartet literature is somewhat limited and is not well known, the New Century Saxophone Quartet often turns to arrangements in order to round-out their repertoire. Usually this means works written before the Saxophones invention in the 1840s by the Belgian inventor Adolphe Sax. With the more frequent use of the Saxophone in the 20th Century, especially in America, it was natural for me to turn to three of my most admired composers: Morton Gould, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein. Another logical reason for choosing these three was that they all used Saxophones in their compositions – including those on this disc. West Side Story is scored for the entire modern Saxophone family: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass! The music chosen also satisfies a request of NCSQ fans – that we perform some music they know with tunes that continue to play in their heads long after the concert is over. Most often one hears Hollywood or jazzed-up versions of the music on this disc. In contrast, I set out not to merely reduce these works for Saxophone quartet, but also to preserve the original flavor and feel of the music. This turned out to be quite a challenge, not only for me as arranger, but for the performers as well. To retain an orchestral quality and to cover all of the parts, the individual instruments are stretched well beyond their usual quartet roles. Additionally, each performer is required to play beyond what has been the standard range of their instruments both in pitch and sensitivity. An added but welcome intricacy was the use of percussion