Pomerado Community Band

        In checking up on our dates recently, we found that the Pomerado Saxophone Quartet has just begun its 10th year of playing music together.  Strange that, when we first got together none of us has ever even heard of a saxophone quartet.But now we have and, much to our surprise it is an  emerging type of chamber music, with a special sound all of its own. 
 
        One thing that rings true with sax quartets-----any one of the four horns might be playing the melody at any time.  So when you listen, one never knows whether or not you will be hearing the deep-throated sound of the bari or  high-pitched notes of the soprano.  Some of the early music masters, such as J.S Bach, rotated the lead players in various types of ensembles, giving everyone a chance for melodic lead.
 
         Enhancement of the variety of music  saxophones can play  is provided by the combined ranges of all four saxophones taken together.  Each of the four horns  lends its own special character to the quartet sound. The saxophones in a quartet ensemble,  going from the highest-pitched proceeds from  soprano, to alto, then tenor and baritone.  The soprano has become somewhat more popular of late, but the longtime most popular saxophones are the alto and the tenor, with the alto being the most popular  of  all.  The baritone saxophone is becoming more known as a very special solo instrument, especially in jazz music.  Musician Gerry Mulligan helped make the baritone become much more noticed as a solo horn.
 
         When the Pomerado quartet  began to play ,  our first music was provided by  Carl Cabaniss, whose music teacher had given him some Eubie Blake ragtime compositions transcribed over for a saxophone quartet years before.  Further exploration revealed more available music for saxophone quartets, but very little of it written originally for saxophones.   Little by little, some very interesting music is now becomingavailable for quartets of saxophones.  
 
         The saxophone is one of the most recently invented of current musical instruments, and was only invented some 170 years ago in Belgium.  None of the famous early music composers ever included it in their compositions since it had not been invented yet.  Modern symphony orchestras have saxophones playing from time to time, but the jazz world has adopted the saxophone as one of its most prominently featured horns.  No wonder, a sax can squeal, wail, make a lot of noise,  in addition to providing very beautiful and endearing romantic music.