fuga a 4 voci – for saxophone quartet

duration: ca 3’

instrumentation: s-sax, a-sax, t-sax, b-sax, tubax (optional)

written in 2018, arranged for saxophone quartet in 2021

first performance: 2021-11-29 by Scarbo Quartet at VRT-Studio Toots, Brussels

view score

programme note: 

The idea that a composer must first submit oneself to a study of counterpoint and harmony may have been dismissed nowadays. But Ward found himself to be on this traditional path and wrote this four-part fugue during his studies of master in Music Theory with Marc Masson at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, before studying Composition. This fugue is a relic from that era. 

While giving a friend an introductory workshop in music notation software, a short theme was entered after showing how you could enter an alla breve time signature and a key signature with many flats. Afterwards, the theme was provided with a countersubject, subjected to inversion, augmentation, etc. (nearly) all in proper scholarly fashion. Though now writing in a very different idiom, the schooling always remains a part of who you are, and the love for the E flat minor triad will never lessen!