Listen to an interview with Dan Graser.
The saxophone is best known for its contributions to jazz and rock ’n’ roll, and it’s easy to understand why. The instrument is very malleable to the whims of its players, allowing for varying sounds, depending on the type of sax, and a range of emotive qualities.
But the instrument has just as long a history in classical chamber music, explained Dan Graser, the alto saxophone player for the Donald Sinta Quartet.
“Saxophone quartets formed as a result of saxophone sections in the old bands, like Souza’s band, and the saxophone quartet is the primary way saxophone players study chamber music,” Graser said. “They’re relatively new things in the world of chamber music, because they didn’t really happen in a major significant way until about the 1930s and ’40s when the saxophone section of the Paris Republican Guard Band formed a quartet.”
Graser’s quartet is performing in Lompoc for the Lompoc Concert Association on Jan. 29, showcasing a number of well-known classical chamber works originally scored for string quartets, for a concert aptly titled No Strings Attached.
If you’re wondering which part Donald Sinta plays in the quartet, guess again, because he isn’t in the group, Graser explained. A great saxophone pedagogue who helped popularize classical saxophone, Sinta taught all the members of the quartet and was instrumental in the four coming together. The name of the group is thus a tribute to the players’ mentor.
“Donald Sinta was the saxophone professor at the University of Michigan for 40 years starting in 1974 and he was, in many ways, the father of what we call the American school of saxophone playing,” Graser said, “and the University of Michigan interestingly enough was the first program on this side of the world that offered degrees in saxophone.”
Graser has a Doctor of Musical Arts in saxophone, and teaches at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His compatriots may not match his academic credentials, but they definitely meet his skill level on their respective instruments.
The soprano saxophone is Graser’s instrument, the highest voice in the group, which is the instrument Kenny G is famous for playing. The next lowest voice is the alto saxophone, which Zach Stern plays for the group. The tenor sax fills in the lower end of the spectrum thanks to Joe Girard. Baritone sax player Danny Hawthorne-Foss, whose instrument spans from his mouth almost down to his knees, covers the bass tones.
All together, the quartet is able to create a dynamic soundscape, which is eerily reminiscent of the human voice, due to the way the instrument was designed, Graser explained.
“All the saxophones were conceived of as being a link in bands between the brass and the woodwinds, and in orchestras between the winds, brass, and strings,” he said. “That’s why it’s a single-reed instrument, like the clarinet in that regard, but the instrument is made itself out of brass, so it was designed to be a hybrid.”
The Donald Sinta Quartet is also celebrated for its spirited performances. Its members memorize all their music, from settings of classical music to newly commissioned works by modern composers. The result is remarkable, and comes across even in videos of the group posted on YouTube, with all four musicians swaying to their respective melodies.
They also achieve a sound that isn’t immediately familiar unless you know their instruments. The concert in Lompoc, Graser said, is designed to include pieces that listeners will find familiar, yet renewed in character by the change of instrument.
“The thing about the saxophone is that people have found it to be almost an overly emotive sound, and it’s been used to really great affect by rock ’n’ roll groups, jazz, and commercial groups as an accompaniment and sometimes as a replacement to the human voice because it has that raw, personal kind of sound to it,” he said. “The idea behind the instrument originally was that it would be a classical instrument; it was invented in the 1840s by a Belgian instrument maker, Adolphe Sax, and it had more success in Paris as a classical instrument, and it was designed to be more of a chameleon.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne loves when old music is made new. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2016.