Lenox — They are German. They are classically trained. They are disciplined. But they are also full of wild mischief, along with a tendency to challenge all your assumptions about what a saxophone is capable of. And when they appear at the Linde Center for Music and Learning on November 9, the Arcis Saxophone Quartet will convince you that the saxophone is truly a symphonic instrument.
The group’s program on the 9th is as follows:
- Philippe Geiss — “Patchwork“
- Marc Mellits — “Tapas” (TMC alum)
- Shuteen Erdenebaatar — “Echoes of Life“
- Emma O’Halloran — “Night Music“
- Astor Piazzolla — “Moments with Piazzolla”
For the benefit of tomorrow’s musicians and audiences, the quartet has made education a priority. They hold ensemble workshops and master classes and visit schools to inspire young people to enjoy music and music-making.
Accordingly, on Friday, November 8, Arcis will present a one-hour, full-school assembly for the students at Lenox Memorial Middle High School. The group will introduce their music and explore the saxophone’s sound world. Students will learn about Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, and participate in an interactive segment that will let them see how the saxophone works. Finally, the students will join the Arcis Quartet in making music with body percussion and movement.
Last week I spoke, via Zoom, with group members Jure Knez and Claus Hierluksch, who participated from Germany. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
EDGE
I recognize only one of the composers on your program. Can you give us a run-down on all of them?
HIERLUKSCH
The program is basically a story about a night out. We have the Marc Mellits piece, which is called “Tapas,” like little Spanish appetizers. Because if you go out, you should start with something to eat.
And then we have the piece by Shuteen Erdenebaatar, because I think everybody knows this situation: You get a bit tipsy after drinking some beer, and you start reflecting on your life. The piece is called “Echoes of Life.” So… how life could have turned out, or how you thought it would turn out when you were young. That’s what we give the audience to think about when they listen to this piece.
And then there is a walk on the beach with the night music by Emma O’Halloran. On this one, we all get to imitate the sea.
Actually, in Germany, we start with a different piece, not on saxophones, but on aerophones, which are a kind of electric saxophone. But we can’t bring those instruments with us to the U.S., so we just switched the order. We start the concert in a very quirky way, as it’s mentioned in the title, where we not only play the saxophone during the first minutes but also use our voices. You could call it scat singing, and people are always very surprised by it. So we actually start this program with a piece we ordinarily save for an encore.
And then we have, of course, Astor Piazzolla, and people know him. So that’s not much of a mystery.
EDGE
How much of your repertoire is entirely improvisational?
HIERLUKSCH
None. We are classically trained, and that’s how we keep it. You can think of us more like a classical string quartet. We are not jazz musicians. We basically stick to what the instrument was intended to be, because in 1846, when the saxophone was invented, jazz was not invented yet. Adolphe Sax wanted his instrument to be used for the classical symphony orchestra as well as in the military bands. He didn’t manage to really get it into the symphony orchestra, because the way an orchestra works today was already developed at that time. So there are just a few pieces where the saxophone has its place. Of course, it’s not a fixed thing in the orchestra, but Mr. Sax managed to get his instrument into the military bands of France around the 1860s. And that’s also how the saxophone came to the U.S., where it met jazz music. And the jazz musicians of the time, having already invented a new musical language, now also wanted a new color or a new musical voice. And that’s how the saxophone became the most famous jazz instrument.
KNEZ
But we are also quite fluid. We don’t take jazz boundaries very seriously. We just play what we think works and sounds good and fits a saxophone quartet. We are always coming from a classically trained perspective, but we try to be as open as possible to all kinds of styles and genres.
EDGE
I’ve heard some of your Bach recordings, and they are exquisite. Who makes the arrangements for saxophone?
HIERLUKSCH
All of us. We do it on our own, and if you are referring to the Italian concerto, which is on our CD, that of course, was scored originally for haut consort, but it’s already a strange situation, because Bach writes a concerto, but he writes it for one instrument, which is a bit strange. You can see already in the score how he thought the voices would go. For example, you can see that a part is meant probably for flute or maybe violin. It’s basically always just four parts. That’s how we follow the voices, and it works very well.
We also work with a lot of people in our field. We studied a lot with string quartets, and also with experts in Baroque music, during our studies in university. And we also were part of the, so-called ECMA, the European Chamber Music Academy, where the best teachers of the world come together for week-long sessions. We meet there, and that’s how we learned to do all of that.
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Hear the Arcis Saxophone Quartet at the Linde Center for Music and Learning on Saturday, November 9, at 7 p.m. Tickets and more information are available here.
