yes, it often sounds like there are high strings. I would have never expected that but I guess adding the sopranino saxes gives it that shimmer in the top end making it resemble a violin section.
Cette formation de saxophones est réellement impressionnante ! La richesse de l'instrument, et les capacités symphoniques de cette nombreuse famille d'instruments sont ici totalement démontrés et avec perfection ! Cordiales salutations d'un admirateur de Toulouse france.
This proves that the Snobs of the Orchestra in the 1800's just are creatures of habit and tradition. I started on Sax and used to beg our band director to do classical pieces with our section featured!!! This is FANTASTIC!!
@@yosebko132 Kind of a chicken and egg problem. Many instrumentalists that might have played sax were essentially threatened by other equipment manufacturers/composers so they never picked up the sax. And those that did stayed quiet about it.
If you want to hear some more “classical” sounding pieces with sax featured listen to some Percy Granger! His favorite instrument was the soprano sax, it’s featured everywhere in his music :)
The Big Tune sounds good on lots of things. There’s an abridged setting here in TH-cam of Jupiter for two melodicas but for the big Tune one switches to piano, and it’s very moving: the melodica with a good player is very expressive, and the piano works well with it.
If you get a lot of saxophones together and play the same song, it's sound a lot like a string ensemble. But this is better than anything I've ever seen. I definitely want to be in something like this someday.
as a vocalist, my life revolves around choral music, and i love every minute of it. but there are just some things voices can’t do. thanks instrumentalists for being awesome
Carli Q thank you. You have no clue how bad instrumentalists get left out. When at a gig everyone congratulated the singer. It’s nice to know that some singers appreciate us. Thank you
That's actually Adolphe Saxs dream. Or to say it another way, he intended for the saxophone to replace every instrument in the orchestra in order to get a more harmonious sound and easier cross instrument understanding of each others Instrument
@@christopherhutt4558 too bad he invented it "too late", when most of the biggest orchestral composers had already found their "standard" organic, and that his enemies went around in the biggest Paris conservatories to tell every composer to not use his instrument in order to sabotage him. Such a pity for our instrument
+carloslcarreira String basses can play long, sustained notes - no need for a breath. They also can play pizzicato (pluck the string) which brings a unique orchestral effect to the ensemble. It's a nice re-enforcement for smaller ensembles as well and puts less strain on the lower instruments in long, lyric passages. listen at 03:00; the staccato notes in the bass section are a little smoother because of the unique attack/decay of the plucked bass.
+isaiah baggett I know what you mean, but you can have circular breath and slap tongue for those effects. Might just be me, but I don't hear that much difference in the staccato notes by influence of the double bass.
Well... As you can probably see, there are virtually no "bass" voices in the ensemble although I do think I see only one bass saxophone. The string bass (or double bass) is pretty much a foundation for the ensemble that just gives a full bass platform of sound rather than just a baritone end. Its really just for the effect. String basses just fill the room more than a baritone sax...
This is so amazing. It literally sounds like an entire orchestra with no missing parts. If I listened to this blindfold, I would not have noticed there were no strings and that it was all saxes.
I had the privilege of listening to this ensemble in Tokyo December 2014. It was one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life and was truly a pleasure!
I love the way East Asian musicians are getting into and enhacing the Western canon. Groups like the National University Chorus (Taiwan) and soloists too many to mention.
I play Clarinet and will learn Saxophone as a second instrument. But the Sax does a really good job at covering for all wind instruments. I’ve always wondered why they are not in orchestras.
From what I understand, Saxes aren't in classical Orchestras is cause the inventor of the sax was very egotistical and the classical snobs of that era didn't like him so the refused to acknowledge him and the Sax.
The saxophone was basically designed to replace the entire orchestra setup. Established instrument makers, threatened by this, conspired to ruin Adolph Sax by slandering him and keeping him in debt and in court with baseless copyright claims. Sax died pennyless, before the saxophone had really moved past use by military bands. He never saw what his instrument has accomplished in the last century. He had actually designed a whole family of saxophones for the orchestra, but (except for the C Melody) they were never made in high numbers. The ones in common use today; the soprano, alto, tenor, etc., were from the side developed for military bands
I fell in love with this arrangement (maybe slightly different?) by the UT Saxophone Ensemble, which has maybe 20 kids. Hearing it with these forces is just astounding! I've always said saxophones for orchestral colors, trombones for choral colors. I literally got shivers listening to this! Great job!
And this is why saxes should have never been removed form the orchestra. Who needs brass when you have a woodwind that can immitate the breathy mellow tones of a clarinet, the buzz of double reed, or the power of brass? Seriously dude, this sounded like a traditional orchestra at some points. Should've just let saxes replace the brass from the getgo.
Saxophones were never removed from the orchestra. They were never a part to begin with, because the orchestra had already been defined as what it is today. Saxophones were too new to be considered. Besides, they found a great home in Marching, Jazz and Concert Band or even huge ensambles such as this one!
Dylan McCormack It was the composer's dream to eventually make the saxophone a permanent orchestral instrument. The reason why that didn't happen, was because the French snobs that dominated the music academia and orchestras simply didn't like him. They were jealous of Adolphe Sax, who was a very talented man.
Well, several French composers included a sax or saxes in some of their orchestral pieces. Bizet and Ravel come to mind. And lots of Russians: Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch...
I don't know if I'd agree that they should have REPLACED the brass. But they should certainly be a part of the orchestra as an extra section of colours to be used. Unfortunately even today apparently you need to be a very well-established composer to be able to attempt including them in your score if you want a feasible performance, which is odd when you consider the number of sax players, but it's an indication that they are probably contracted to come and play rather than really being part of the orchestra.
C'est vraiment épatant ! Ça sonne vraiment très bien ! Bravo à l'arrangeur et à l'ensemble des musiciens, ils doivent tous avoir un sacré niveau pour produire une telle performance !
What extraordinary musicians. And how incredible that it’s sounds like an orchestra full of strings even though it’s ALL saxophones, save the lone bass player.
I wonder if the main characteristic of a string orchestra is its slow attack, which can be emulated quite well when you have such a large group of instruments playing the same time (the attack time naturally gets longer due to tiny difference in timing)
The timbre of a saxophone's high notes is very close to that of a violin. Add some vibrato and a gentle attack, and it sounds almost identical to strings. Also listen to Yasuto Tanaka playing bari sax. He sounds just like a cello.
Soprano: Instrument made to imitate the sounds of a flute/clarinet/trumpet/oboe Alto: Instrument made to imitate the sounds of a French Horn/higher trombone/violin/higher viola Tenor: made to imitate Bassoon/euphonium/mid-lower trombone Baritone: made to imitate Cello/tuba/low-bass trombone/lower euphonium/higher double bass/contrabassoon/bass clarinet/contralto clarinet In other words, it’s a full orchestra. Don’t even get me started on the percussion
People kicked saxophones out of the orchestra because they were “too hard to blend” but listen to the blend here lol saxophones sound amazing and can blend amazingly with other woodwind instruments. Sounds like a full orchestra but what is it? Saxophones. Bring saxophones back to orchestra.
@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8. I would hope that this was nothing short of the greatest example of how timbrelly diverse the saxophone is. And your assumption that there aren’t weight Sax players is wrong. Sax is the only instrument that doesn’t have an orchestral seat. So there would be thousands of saxophonists that would come out if the woodwork, seemingly from nowhere.
@@jacobbass6226 I was not at all saying that we should not have saxophones in the orchestra. Quite the contrary, in fact, I am a strong proponent of having at least a quartet as part of an orchestra, and make sure to write them in when I'm doing orchestral pieces. I was instead objecting to the original comment, which said "what do we need brass and strings for". Indeed, there are many things on string and brass instruments that you cannot replicate with saxophones, and many other things that you may only be able to approximate. And considering there are many hundreds of thousands of orchestral instrument players that don't play sax, I said "the fact that most musicians don't play saxophone". It is not an incorrect statement. I don't believe _any_ instrument can replace another, especially if it was from an entirely different family. I certainly don't believe any instrument can replace an entire orchestra.
Amazing talent. Just one question: what’s up with the single string bass to the far right? You can’t tell me that a baritone sax couldn’t produce that sound.
This sort of music - huge ensembles of a single instrument or instrument type - usually make me cringe. That even (perhaps “especially”) if it’s an instrument I myself have played. Nevertheless, this one in particular works remarkably well, on my opinion! I think the reason it works is the magic of composite timbres: Sopranos doubling tenors and octave or two above, sound surprisingly string-like, for example.
Orchestra: *kicks saxes out*
Saxes: Aight bet
ERBOCH fr😂
Exactly what I just said
Sax be like: it's alright we can do what they can do, but they can't do everything we can do, we don't need them😤
*"Fine. I'll do it myself."*
😂 fr tho underrated comment
WOAHHHH if I weren’t paying close attention, I wouldn’t even notice this that this wasn’t a string symphony (most of the time). Just beautiful
to be fair there is a double bass, but it's still pretty quiet though.
@del6781 .. you took the words right out of my mouth !! Amazing.
yes, it often sounds like there are high strings. I would have never expected that but I guess adding the sopranino saxes gives it that shimmer in the top end making it resemble a violin section.
Saxophone- noun. : The one instrument that can replace all others in an ensemble
Yet is never utilized in a proper classical orchestra. They know it's power all too well.
I have found my people :D
welcome home
As a clarinetist, I can't dispute this.
David P. Minus percussion
Cette formation de saxophones est réellement impressionnante ! La richesse de l'instrument, et les capacités symphoniques de cette nombreuse famille d'instruments sont ici totalement démontrés et avec perfection ! Cordiales salutations d'un admirateur de Toulouse france.
amazing. they sound like strings often times, even french horns towards the end.
+isaiah baggett The light vibrato is what gives the string sound. As for horn sound, my best guess is size 4 reeds :)
Yess‼ I play flute & it also sounds like flutes & piccolo at times. Even clarinet. So crazy :)
Damn this makes me proud to be a saxophone player
Damn right
Hell yea
Same goes for me bro
This proves that the Snobs of the Orchestra in the 1800's just are creatures of habit and tradition. I started on Sax and used to beg our band director to do classical pieces with our section featured!!! This is FANTASTIC!!
It was just the snobs; it was instrument makers who ganged up to sabotage Sax so his instrument wouldn’t put them out of business.
the saxophone never had enough skilled players in the early 1900s so it didn't make sense for composers to include them in orchestras.
@@yosebko132 Kind of a chicken and egg problem. Many instrumentalists that might have played sax were essentially threatened by other equipment manufacturers/composers so they never picked up the sax. And those that did stayed quiet about it.
If you want to hear some more “classical” sounding pieces with sax featured listen to some Percy Granger! His favorite instrument was the soprano sax, it’s featured everywhere in his music :)
The saxophones have the perfect timbre for the great tune in this piece. Tragic that so many major composers wrote almost nothing for them.
Eh, kinda hard to compose for an instrument that didn't exist yet ;)
The saxophone had existed for 70 years by the time this piece was written.
The Big Tune sounds good on lots of things. There’s an abridged setting here in TH-cam of Jupiter for two melodicas but for the big Tune one switches to piano, and it’s very moving: the melodica with a good player is very expressive, and the piano works well with it.
If you get a lot of saxophones together and play the same song, it's sound a lot like a string ensemble. But this is better than anything I've ever seen. I definitely want to be in something like this someday.
Same, seems like a fun job to have
There is that one bass fiddle off to our right.
Saxes can pretty well imitate other instruments, like the strings, except without the violins metallic screeching.
as a vocalist, my life revolves around choral music, and i love every minute of it. but there are just some things voices can’t do. thanks instrumentalists for being awesome
Carli Q thank you. You have no clue how bad instrumentalists get left out. When at a gig everyone congratulated the singer. It’s nice to know that some singers appreciate us. Thank you
This sounds more orchestral than some orchestras
Diego Rovaglia too true
That's actually Adolphe Saxs dream. Or to say it another way, he intended for the saxophone to replace every instrument in the orchestra in order to get a more harmonious sound and easier cross instrument understanding of each others Instrument
@@christopherhutt4558 too bad he invented it "too late", when most of the biggest orchestral composers had already found their "standard" organic, and that his enemies went around in the biggest Paris conservatories to tell every composer to not use his instrument in order to sabotage him. Such a pity for our instrument
Agreed
Wow this was beautifully played but also holy hell whoever did the orchestration needs an award
Now THAT's my kind of orchestra - hundreds of saxophones with one string player (instead of vice versa)
i couldnt imagine tuning.
great!♧
Earl Joseph rip sopranos especially
Jacobi Nelson sopranino sax especially😂
Quenya Sindarin there weren’t any
@@rorycraig there were even more behind and above them.
Saxophonists are just amazing people
+Addy Dodd Thanks!
+Addy Dodd Ah, thank you, Addy.
aww yeah
Awww....thank you. I really like saxophonists as well.
thank you
There is a really strange wooden saxophone on the left :P
carloslcarreira But serious though, why the need for the double bass?
+carloslcarreira my guess is they couldnt get a hold of a ContraBass Sax or something similarly low.
+carloslcarreira String basses can play long, sustained notes - no need for a breath. They also can play pizzicato (pluck the string) which brings a unique orchestral effect to the ensemble. It's a nice re-enforcement for smaller ensembles as well and puts less strain on the lower instruments in long, lyric passages. listen at 03:00; the staccato notes in the bass section are a little smoother because of the unique attack/decay of the plucked bass.
+isaiah baggett I know what you mean, but you can have circular breath and slap tongue for those effects. Might just be me, but I don't hear that much difference in the staccato notes by influence of the double bass.
Well... As you can probably see, there are virtually no "bass" voices in the ensemble although I do think I see only one bass saxophone. The string bass (or double bass) is pretty much a foundation for the ensemble that just gives a full bass platform of sound rather than just a baritone end. Its really just for the effect. String basses just fill the room more than a baritone sax...
There's moments where it sounds like there's a string section playing the higher stuff. Kind of amazing how much the sax can do.
This is incredible, so much of original orchestral texture has been retained. Superb
This is so amazing. It literally sounds like an entire orchestra with no missing parts. If I listened to this blindfold, I would not have noticed there were no strings and that it was all saxes.
WOW! 😃 If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I never would guessed it was all saxophones playing this! Simply amazing!! Thanks for sharing.
Guys, the run starting at 7:39...Perfection.
I had the privilege of listening to this ensemble in Tokyo December 2014. It was one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life and was truly a pleasure!
I just cried...fantastic music and outstanding articulations!
Same. A surprising gem, crisp in quality, and flawless in performance.
And silent tears at the Andante Maestoso.
It's 8 years later and it's still bringing a tear to peoples' eyes. This version using almost all saxophones is genuinely beautiful
中学校のブラスバンドでユーフォニウムを吹いていた時、地区合同の大会で大勢で演奏し、身体全体で感動したことを思い出した。ありがとう。
I love the way East Asian musicians are getting into and enhacing the Western canon. Groups like the National University Chorus (Taiwan) and soloists too many to mention.
I play Clarinet and will learn Saxophone as a second instrument. But the Sax does a really good job at covering for all wind instruments. I’ve always wondered why they are not in orchestras.
Check this : th-cam.com/video/BsfPS7pXg1E/w-d-xo.html
From what I understand, Saxes aren't in classical Orchestras is cause the inventor of the sax was very egotistical and the classical snobs of that era didn't like him so the refused to acknowledge him and the Sax.
@@CreaativeName bruh lol
If they let saxophones play in the rchestra, people would realise they don't need any of the other instruments.
The saxophone was basically designed to replace the entire orchestra setup. Established instrument makers, threatened by this, conspired to ruin Adolph Sax by slandering him and keeping him in debt and in court with baseless copyright claims. Sax died pennyless, before the saxophone had really moved past use by military bands. He never saw what his instrument has accomplished in the last century.
He had actually designed a whole family of saxophones for the orchestra, but (except for the C Melody) they were never made in high numbers. The ones in common use today; the soprano, alto, tenor, etc., were from the side developed for military bands
How...What...But...they're SAXOPHONES! Just amazing
I fell in love with this arrangement (maybe slightly different?) by the UT Saxophone Ensemble, which has maybe 20 kids. Hearing it with these forces is just astounding! I've always said saxophones for orchestral colors, trombones for choral colors. I literally got shivers listening to this! Great job!
Thank you. This brought me much jollity.
im so impressed by how much it sounds like the original intruments...
3:06 wonderful 🥺🤧
i love the one double bass
And this is why saxes should have never been removed form the orchestra. Who needs brass when you have a woodwind that can immitate the breathy mellow tones of a clarinet, the buzz of double reed, or the power of brass? Seriously dude, this sounded like a traditional orchestra at some points.
Should've just let saxes replace the brass from the getgo.
That's pretty damn awesome, would love to hear it!
Saxophones were never removed from the orchestra. They were never a part to begin with, because the orchestra had already been defined as what it is today. Saxophones were too new to be considered. Besides, they found a great home in Marching, Jazz and Concert Band or even huge ensambles such as this one!
Dylan McCormack It was the composer's dream to eventually make the saxophone a permanent orchestral instrument. The reason why that didn't happen, was because the French snobs that dominated the music academia and orchestras simply didn't like him. They were jealous of Adolphe Sax, who was a very talented man.
Well, several French composers included a sax or saxes in some of their orchestral pieces. Bizet and Ravel come to mind. And lots of Russians: Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch...
I don't know if I'd agree that they should have REPLACED the brass. But they should certainly be a part of the orchestra as an extra section of colours to be used. Unfortunately even today apparently you need to be a very well-established composer to be able to attempt including them in your score if you want a feasible performance, which is odd when you consider the number of sax players, but it's an indication that they are probably contracted to come and play rather than really being part of the orchestra.
i swear i heard a full orchestra
I closed my eyes to listen.....to find out what is the difference with a traditional orchestra....then feel amazing,,,,all are the same...
C'est vraiment épatant ! Ça sonne vraiment très bien ! Bravo à l'arrangeur et à l'ensemble des musiciens, ils doivent tous avoir un sacré niveau pour produire une telle performance !
"May all beings be happy, be paceful, be liberated..........."
A wonderful rendition of one of my favorite pieces. Hard to believe that many saxes are in tune.
Excellent! Post more videos of this group.
You are excellent!❤
This makes mme somehow love playing the saxophone even more.
Beautiful arrangement and performance.
WOW! Absolutely FABULOUS!
i wanna be in one of these ensembles so bad
Probably they all s class musicians,this level now is unreachable for me
One of my favourite pieces, and now this is one of my favourite versions. Amazing!
3:05 The best part.
when in doubt add more saxophones
Beautiful
What extraordinary musicians. And how incredible that it’s sounds like an orchestra full of strings even though it’s ALL saxophones, save the lone bass player.
This is beautiful
VRAIMENT SUPER..... INCROYABLE
that bassist probably thought about if they were in the right ensemble or not
musicians are wonderful
Brilliant.
This was beautiful and fantastic to listen to. Thank you for sharing
Que maravilla, suena como una orquesta sinfónica!!🎉🎉
I'd gladly trade in that stringbass for a contrabass saxophone and/or tympani & cymbals.
they didnt let saxophones in the orchestra so they made their own
absolutely wonderful.
Saxophone Master Race
i vow to thee, my country ... 03:05 😊
é incrível como eles tocando
Excelente.
this is so awesome
I wonder if the main characteristic of a string orchestra is its slow attack, which can be emulated quite well when you have such a large group of instruments playing the same time (the attack time naturally gets longer due to tiny difference in timing)
The timbre of a saxophone's high notes is very close to that of a violin. Add some vibrato and a gentle attack, and it sounds almost identical to strings. Also listen to Yasuto Tanaka playing bari sax. He sounds just like a cello.
Very good. But it needs the two timpanists and crash cymbal.
Just amazing!!!
Brilliant! Many thanks.
that is a large saxophone ensemble damn
this is why i wrote sax parts in orchestral pieces.
Soprano: Instrument made to imitate the sounds of a flute/clarinet/trumpet/oboe
Alto: Instrument made to imitate the sounds of a French Horn/higher trombone/violin/higher viola
Tenor: made to imitate Bassoon/euphonium/mid-lower trombone
Baritone: made to imitate Cello/tuba/low-bass trombone/lower euphonium/higher double bass/contrabassoon/bass clarinet/contralto clarinet
In other words, it’s a full orchestra. Don’t even get me started on the percussion
Just bang on a sax lmao
Amazing!
6:46 gonna ask my friends to guess what instruments are playing
People kicked saxophones out of the orchestra because they were “too hard to blend” but listen to the blend here lol saxophones sound amazing and can blend amazingly with other woodwind instruments. Sounds like a full orchestra but what is it? Saxophones.
Bring saxophones back to orchestra.
Oboes and English horns stick out even more than saxophones, yet they are still a part of the orchestra.
Awesome..... !..
God DAMN that gave me chills-
Magnificent !
Even some sopraninos, wow.
Leave it to tthe Japanese who created Yamaha and Yanigisawa to do a sax orchestra. Very successful!
Nice! Wow!🎷
Wow!
i love it
Magnificent.
love it
yass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is just amazing
So what do we need brass and strings for?????
who says we need any non saxophone instrument?
Their timbre, the techniques unique to those instruments, and the fact that most musicians don't play saxophone.
sax is pretty versatile
@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8. I would hope that this was nothing short of the greatest example of how timbrelly diverse the saxophone is. And your assumption that there aren’t weight Sax players is wrong. Sax is the only instrument that doesn’t have an orchestral seat. So there would be thousands of saxophonists that would come out if the woodwork, seemingly from nowhere.
@@jacobbass6226 I was not at all saying that we should not have saxophones in the orchestra. Quite the contrary, in fact, I am a strong proponent of having at least a quartet as part of an orchestra, and make sure to write them in when I'm doing orchestral pieces. I was instead objecting to the original comment, which said "what do we need brass and strings for". Indeed, there are many things on string and brass instruments that you cannot replicate with saxophones, and many other things that you may only be able to approximate. And considering there are many hundreds of thousands of orchestral instrument players that don't play sax, I said "the fact that most musicians don't play saxophone". It is not an incorrect statement. I don't believe _any_ instrument can replace another, especially if it was from an entirely different family. I certainly don't believe any instrument can replace an entire orchestra.
I think groups like these are way better sounding than any orchestra
The sax section in a band tends to be the most quirky personality wise.
Amazing talent. Just one question: what’s up with the single string bass to the far right? You can’t tell me that a baritone sax couldn’t produce that sound.
My gosh this is beautiful. Can someome tell me the name of the piece they're playing?
很棒
I know they did Mars, but did they do the rest of the suite?
Nice soprillo
Makes me think of outer space.
bro why do i hear a full orchestra during the chorale
I see a double bass in the back, but is that the only string instrument?
Wasn't this the music from Catherine?
This sort of music - huge ensembles of a single instrument or instrument type - usually make me cringe. That even (perhaps “especially”) if it’s an instrument I myself have played.
Nevertheless, this one in particular works remarkably well, on my opinion!
I think the reason it works is the magic of composite timbres: Sopranos doubling tenors and octave or two above, sound surprisingly string-like, for example.
why string bass in sax ensemble
For bass
Kyrnotik why not bass sax then
Not bassy enough
Kyrnotik contrabass?
Not bassy enough