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I. Tango  X

III. Circus Gallop Polka  X

by William Price

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Suite for Saxophone Quartet (SATB)

I. Tango

II. Waltz

III. Circus Gallop Polka

Duration: approx. 9 minutes.

Composed by William Price, for saxophone quartet (SATB). 1 Full Score and 4 Part(s). Contemporary Classical. 7 pages. 8 1/2 X 11 inches, Booklet. Published by IROM Music Publishing.

Suite for Saxophone Quartet was composed in the summer of 2001 and was constructed using late 19th and early 20th century popular dance styles as the focus for each of the movements. The Tango, the Waltz, and a hybrid movement, the Circus Gallop Polka, are modified binary in form, and are unified by phrasing, harmonic scheme and a personal connection to the composer and his performance career as a percussionist in various dance/popular ensembles.

The first movement, Tango, was influenced by the simple dance hall tango and the art music of Astor Piazzolla. A lighter, more humorous atmosphere is added to the sultry tango by the inclusion of exaggerated cadential extensions, light trills, and the use of slap tongue techniques. Florid scalar embellishments are used to represent certain movements the female dancer's skirt makes while dancing with her partner. The second movement, Waltz, is a modified binary movement, which includes a chorale-like introduction and a middle fugato developmental passage. In this movement, as well as the other two, phrases are extended and elided to create a more inclusive non-sectional division within the work. The Circus Gallop Polka uses the traditional gallop march for its rhythmic impetus and harmonic scheme. Adhering to the concept of the circus, various motives recall the atmosphere of the Karl King march and the whimsical antics of the circus clown. The melodic material was constructed using rhythmic inversions of the characteristic polka rhythm.

This work was the result of the 2001 Louisiana Music Teachers Association Commission and was premiered by the LSU Saxophone Quartet at the LMTA state conference.