32 Foot: The Organ of Bach

For the past 20 years, BL!NDMAN has been constantly engaged in the search for a saxophone sound that throws new light on old music. Central to this is timbre, as is the way in which the tone can be consciously influenced by the whole body, even the voice box. This release of Bach organ transcriptions for saxophone celebrates BL!NDMAN's 25th anniversary.

In Bach’s time, the organ was like a huge synthesiser; the ‘king of instruments’ with its myriad hues and possibilities. In order to play polyphonous music, the organist, by changing manuals, has access to a range of registers through which the tissue of voices can be followed perfectly. The quartet can achieve this differentiation by utilising the very specific spectrums of each saxophone – soprano, alto, tenor and baritone.

When arranging organ works, you are constantly confronted with melodies whose high or low notes are beyond the reach of one of the individual saxes. Exciting call-and-response playing then comes into play, where motifs and melodies are passed on almost unnoticed, like in a musical relay. The instrumentation closely follows the structure of the music, like the play of themes, counter-themes and spill-over passages in the fugues, or the variation technique in the Passacaglia.