Quarter Tone Technique for Saxophone

By: Quinn, Brandon

"Brandon Dixon has presented an important work that will be of great interest to performers and pedagogues worldwide, and will move us toward the goal of including techniques that we once considered "extended" into the realm of standard saxophone technique." - James Romaine, Professor of Saxophone and Associate Director of Jazz Studies at Drake University

During the early 20th century, Western composers such as Alois H ba, Ivan Wyshnegradsky, and Charles Ives began composing quarter tone works for piano, clarinet, and voice. Composers such as Dean Drummond and Easley Blackwood composed microtonal pieces for a variety of unique instruments, including pitched percussion, guitar, and electronic instruments.

Since then, many composers have experimented with the new melodic and harmonic possibilities quarter tonality has to offer. There are hundreds of quarter tone pieces which have been composed for piano, voice, strings, brass, and woodwind instruments, including the saxophone.

Quarter tone compositions are beginning to appear in the saxophone repertoire. The saxophone is highly capable of playing quarter tone notes, with almost the same fluidity and consistency as the normal notes, throughout nearly the entire 2 1/2 octave range.

The purpose of this book is to introduce saxophonists to this challenging but rewarding technique with a multitude of fingerings followed by studies in scales and chords and, once fluent, ten etudes that fully exploit the quarter tone technique and the unique melodies and harmonies this technique makes possible. Quarter tonality presents new melodic and harmonic possibilities that can bring about previously unexplored textures, colors, and atmospheres to music.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DYDSBLSR
• ISBN13: 9798311269100
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.5" x 11.0"