Marin Marais Album – 24 pieces solo adaptées pour le saxophone
A fabulous collection of varied exercises for the intermediate or advanced saxophonist, ranging from the approachable to the downright difficult. Most classical articulations are covered in a range of well-thought-out studies that are a joy to play. Slow practice is the key here as the leaps are huge. ‘Study No. 5’ is one of my favourites as the harmonies are fabulous – it makes practising something difficult so much more worthwhile when you know the end result is going to sound amazing. It's just a shame it can take such a long time.
Useful instructions are given at the top of each study and this book is well worth a look if you are aiming to develop your classical saxophone technique. Highly recommended.
Moldau for Two Flutes
Jennifer Seubel has done a sterling job condensing this selection of themes from The Moldau although the book is not for the faint of heart. In her own words, ‘the two flutes replace every instrumental part in the orchestra. This entails an enormous challenge.’ She's not wrong!
Seubel offers some useful performance tips at the front of the book which indicates that she knows just how tricky the arrangements are, and it appears to me that the second line faces the biggest challenge. Seubel's attempt to cover ‘every instrumental part’ falls mainly to the second player in the form of lots of arpeggiated figures covering the range of the instrument. The melody is predominantly carried by the first player but the relentless and challenging accompanying will ultimately decide the performance viability of these pieces. The five movements definitely contain enough for any intermediate flautist to get their teeth into and would suit players of Grade 7 and above.
Challenging but fun.
Hit Movie and TV Instrumental Solos: Alto saxophone level 2 to 3
This lovely selection of themes is part of a series of books titled ‘Alfred's Hit Movie and Instrumental Solos’. Although the book I have is for a sax player of approximately Grade 3 to 4 standard, it is perfectly possible to use these backings with a number of instruments either individually or as an ensemble. Included with the book is a CD that includes backings, PDFs, demo tracks and TNT2 software.
The songs are drawn from a wide range of media, including Ghostbusters, Beauty and the Beast and a range of DC properties such as Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad and the TV series The Flash. I loved playing through this book and recommend it to any player as an enjoyable addition to their repertoire.
World Music: Celtic – Play-Along Clarinet
Some great melodies that have been arranged by Martin Tourish, but do read the foreword. A lot of licence is granted in performance, as Tourish explains that ‘there is no one “correct” way to play each piece’. He also stresses that each performer will attempt to make them their own in their own way.
I'm concerned that this has resulted in the inclusion of a lot of ‘twiddles’, which are traditional embellishments that work very well on instruments with an open C♯ – the clarinet not being one of them. It would have been well worth asking a clarinettist about the feasibility of said twiddles as it has resulted in some bars being a lot trickier than might be expected considering the easy to intermediate target group – such as bar 47 to 52 of ‘Athol Highlanders’.
Despite this, the backings are tastefully done and offered in varying speeds and the melodies are played on a mixture of guitars, whistles and squeezeboxes, which eat up twiddles for breakfast. The book serves as a good introduction to the genre and the backings really do lock the performer into the style.
