ErikL8

What exacly is a "greatest composer"? Is it like: the Michael Jackson of classical music? It depends on what one finds the most important quality of a composer, what might mean it could be a composer who's not the best in orchestration, but very creative and has a tons of great ideas put on paper. Or a composer who changed music the most might indicate the "greatestness" of a composer. But that would exclude all new composers, because nothing could be crazy enough the last century. You can't measure how much the composers of the last century might change the music of these days. So I'll go for Tschaikovsky. My favourite composer is not on the list: Shostakovich. My favourite orchestrator is not on the list either: Ravel. Well, it's probably a lack in my upbringing, but I'm not a great fan of most music older than, say, 200 years. Not totally true, because I started being interested in classical music because of Mozart. But after listening so much, it has been flogged to death to me, brilliant it may be.

Are there any Italian composers around here who've written a piece for Concert Band (up to grade 6) or are there composers here who've written a piece about Italy? It's the theme for our next concert. One piece we definitely put on our programme is Poeme Alpestre by Franco Cesarini. A great Swiss composer.

Contrabassclarinet is quite high. The 1st. Bb clarinet is also very high. Usually in a concert band there is a Eb clarinet, who can play this alone. It will be high enough to be heard above the whole orchestra, so there is no need to play it with a whole bunch of clarinets. I'll listen to the score when I'm @home. It looks interesting. Is it grade 5?

Looks challenging! I play Eb clarinet and Bb clarinet. You need a very good mouthpiece and reed to play soft staccato's that high. I think it's impossible to make it as soft as a keyboard can do. Contrabassclarinets are very rare. In the Netherlands I heard there are less than 10 who have one and play on it. The usual clarinet quartet is: 1. Eb or Bb 2. Bb 3. Bb or Eb alto (I have one in my quartet, but is quite rare also) 4. Bass clarinet in Bb

I used to play Sopranosaxophone in a saxophone quartet. You said the musicians are a bit jazz and some more classical orientated. I'd suggest music like new tango. There are some composers who tried to take over the pen of Astor Piazzolla and continued in Newing the Tango music (nuevo tango). I just went to a concert of the Aurelia saxophone quartet in the Netherlands (the best saxophone quartet that I know of) and some composers really did a great job in Piazzolla's footsteps. In 1994 they had a programme with all arrangements of Piazzolla's work. Saxophone works pretty well on his music. It has a bit the same soundcolour like the bandoneon: desolate, lyric/romantic, aggressive. A mix between Miles Davis and tango. Just ask if they can play a glissando or growls etcetera if you come to this idea. Those are sometimes nice effects. Slap tongue is the easiest on a Baritone sax on low notes. Some Baritonsaxophones only go to the low (written) B-flat. Newer Bariton saxophones have the low A.