The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85582   Message #1586178
Posted By: JohnInKansas
19-Oct-05 - 10:31 AM
Thread Name: Instruments with 2 1/2 octave range ?
Subject: RE: Instruments with 2 1/2 octave range ?
A saxophone has a four octave range, but virtually no music you're likely to find will use more than the lower two and a half octaves, which would make it a pretty good match to your range. The notated range in common use is from a Bb on the bottom to the F 2.5 octaves up. Few pieces use even this full range.

Quite a number of "classical" pieces have been scored for saxophone, mainly perhaps as contest or recital pieces, so they'd be mostly individual sheet music rather than in convenient collections. A good "academic" music shop that caters to teachers and students should be able to show you samples.

Most competition and recital music comes with a piano accompaniment, so it would already be transposed for you, and would fill in any chords you might want (with a bit of interpreting).

Since the sax can only play one note at a time, the music scored for it tends to be a bit simpler than stuff scored for fiddles (that can double-string and have all kinds of fancy strokes), and you're unlikely to find much in the way of notated ornamentation beyond an occasional grace note, trill or (rarely) glissando. On the concertina, of course, you could play a duet with yourself...

John