Canzona per Sonare No. 2

Canzona per Sonare No. 2

Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/57? – 1612)

Saxophone Quartet SATB, AATB, or AAAB

Canzona per Sonare No. 2, by Giovanni Gabrielli arranged for saxophone quartet, flexible scoring. This canzona is taken from an anthology published in 1608 by Gabrielli. A canzona is an instrumental piece modeled on the French vocal form known as the chanson (“canzona” in Italian). Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of the late Renaissance. His work represents the high point of the Venetian School at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.

While it is frequently performed by brass ensembles and organists, canzoni transfer well to the sax quartet format. This piece is arranged for SATB quartet but for maximum flexibility, alternate parts for Alto 1/Soprano and Alto 3/Tenor are included to allow performing the quartet SATB, AATB, or AAAB.

• The range for each saxophone part is shown below.
• Audio and score excerpts are available above.
• Registered users can download a complete sample score and full length audio file of Canzona per Sonare No. 2 on the ‘Samples’ tab.

About the Composer

Giovanni Gabrielli was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance-early Baroque era. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the Venetian School of composition, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.