Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Little Fugue in G Minor

As promised, here is the first upload for this week: a transcription of Bach's "Little" Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578, for saxophone quartet.  This is one of Bach's most well-known works.  I kept the original key for this transcription (which means that the baritone sax should ideally have a low A key), but made a few editorial choices.  First, I was rather sparse with my trill markings, leaving additional trills up to the discretion of the performer.  My thought is that if you know Baroque music well enough to feel that it needs another trill here or there, you're welcome to add them.  The other editorial choice I made was to add some dynamic markings.  These can be seen as just suggestions, but I feel that they are appropriate and add some direction to the music.  Here's a link:

http://josiahbode.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/sm-179230_fugue_bwv_578.html

In case you're wondering why I've been uploading mostly sax quartet music, there are a couple of reasons for that.  Saxophone is my primary instrument, so it makes sense that I would write for saxophones often.  But more than that, I currently lead a sax quartet at Concordia University, Saint Paul, so I have been writing specifically for that group lately.  If you're not a sax player, don't worry: the next couple of uploads will be for different instruments.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

1 Transcription, 1 Arrangement

Well, I missed last week's upload and blog post, but I'm making up for it this week with TWO new pieces.  The first is Mozart's setting of "Ave verum corpus" transcribed for saxophone quartet.  You can download it free here:

http://josiahbode.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/sm-178388_ave_verum_corpus_k_618.html

The second is an arrangement of the spiritual "Go Tell It on the Mountain," also for saxophone quartet.  This arrangement was originally conceived as a piano solo, later adapted for choir, and finally for sax quartet where I feel it has found a permanent home.  The jazz style and interplay of parts makes it particularly appropriate for a group of saxophones.  It will be available for $2.99 here:

http://josiahbode.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/sm-178387_go_tell_it_on_the_mountain.html

Unfortunately at the time I am writing this, the arrangement is still being processed.  That's the trouble with uploading on the weekend, I suppose.  But the real reason it hasn't been processed yet is that I've included an audio sample of the piece.  For now, you can listen to the sample here:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3223169/gotellit_sample2.wav

I bought myself a portable audio recorder for Christmas, so I will be uploading more sound samples of my works in the future.  And just for fun, here's another recording I made while testing my recorder early on:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3223169/Colours.wav

Don't forget all of my music is currently 25% off!  This is only through the end of January, so act fast if you want this deal!  If you're a sax player, make sure to check out my transcriptions; they're all currently free!