| This document investigates the assumption that the saxophone ensemble constitutes a critical and integral part of the history of saxophone performance practice. The development of a saxophone ensemble began in 1844 with George Kastner's composition, Grand sextuor (SAATBBs). Although its development continues today, the true roots of the saxophone quartet as a concert genre preceded the formation of Le quatuor de la musique de la Garde Republicaine (1928) led by the great French saxophonist and teacher, Marcel Mule.;Four major influences contributed to the saxophone quartet as a serious concert genre. Adolphe Sax first began the process of creating an original canon of repertoire for the saxophone ensemble between 1857 and 1870 when he served as the saxophone instructor at the Conservatoire national de musique in Paris. Following the dissolution of the saxophone class at the Conservatoire in 1870, composition for the saxophone (in both solo and ensemble context) slowed tremendously. While only Kastner's sextet predates the establishment of the saxophone class at the Conservatoire , fourteen compositions follow while the class was active, and only eight pieces were written between 1870--1928. A chronology of the extant saxophone ensemble compositions written for four or more saxophones composed prior to 1928 and biographical information on the representative composers (e.g., Jean-Baptiste Singelee, Jerome Savari, Adolphe-Valentin Sellenick, Jean-Baptiste Mohr, Armand Limnander de Nieuwenhove, and Emile Jonas) serve as important resources.;Adolphe Sax's reformation of the French military band instrumentation in 1845 (including the saxophone) spread to civilian bands that used saxophones, specifically in Europe and the United States. These bands fostered venues in which future saxophone ensembles could be formed. Therefore, a discussion of the Garde Republicaine band, Patrick S. Gilmore and John Philip Sousa Bands and their assistance in developing the saxophone quartet into a concert genre provide substantiation to this assertion.;Popular music, vaudeville groups that featured the saxophone (circa 1910--1932), and major musical instrument manufacturers promoted the distribution of American-made saxophones from the beginning of the twentieth century creating immense popularity for the saxophone during the 1920s. The importance of saxophone-based vaudeville and Chautauqua acts, specifically the Six Brown Brothers, Four Musical Cates, and the Apollo Quartet and their impact on the popularity of the saxophone ensemble, consequently becomes apparent. As early as 1926 contemporary critics hailed Rudy Wiedoeft's broadcast concert from the Aeolian Hall as a "first" for the serious saxophone quartet.;The contributions of Edward Lefebre, the American Saxophone Quartette and the Marcel Mule Quartet are placed in a historical perspective that acknowledges their important roles in the formation and development of the saxophone quartet into a concert genre.;The writer's research reveals and concludes that any investigation of the saxophone must include the strategic and important role that the saxophone ensemble has played in its history. |
