Orchestration Tip: Saxophone Tonal Similarities and Blending, Part 2

Orchestration Tip: Saxophone Tonal Similarities and Blending, Part 2

(Tip no. 24 from 100 MORE Orchestration Tips, to be released in 2020.) Similarities of timbre mentioned in the previous tip can provide a guide to the saxophone’s use in soloing, substitution, and textural blending. Despite similarities between saxophones and concert instrument counterparts, it’s important to underline that resemblances are not replications! No matter what…
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Saxophone Tonal Similarities and Blending, Part 1

Saxophone Tonal Similarities and Blending, Part 1

The similarities of timbre between saxophone models and orchestral winds and brass should be well-known to the orchestrator. When saxophones made their initial orchestral appearances in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, it was for their uniqueness of timbre, introducing what would have been an exotic sound into the standard ranks of the wind section. Despite…
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Saxophone Score Placement

Saxophone Score Placement

(Tip no. 21 from 100 MORE Orchestration Tips, to be released in 2018) Score placement is a tricky and evolving thing for visitors to the concert orchestra – especially when that visitor isn’t a soloist, but a general contributor to orchestral texture and function. The saxophone can be particularly puzzling, and not just to developing…
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