The saxophone was born in Belgium in 1840, by the hand of the talented instrument builder Adolphe Sax. Due to the difficulty of asserting the instrument in the musical circuit of the time, except in military bands, the saxophone quartet, consisting of a soprano saxophone, an alto saxophone, a tenor saxophone, and a baritone saxophone, emerged as a way to boost its expansion.
The history behind the creation of this chamber formation is also linked to the rise of two saxophone masters - Marcel Mule and Sigurd Raschèr. They both contributed to revolutionise saxophone teaching. Mule taught at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, and in 1928, he founded the group that would become Le Quatuor de Saxophones de Paris. Raschèr taught at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music and, in 1969, formed the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet.
In terms of repertoire, the Premier Quatuor Op. 53, written in 1857 by Jean-Baptiste Singelée (a friend of Adolphe Sax), was the first work originally composed for this formation. Then, after an important research work, Mule transcribed a number of important works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Isaac Albéniz for saxophone quartet, making the saxophone known to composers of his generation, such as Aleksandre Glazunov, Eugène Bozza, Florent Schmitt, Pierre Max Dubois, and Alfred Desenclos, while encouraging them to compose.
Within the Navy Band, the Saxophone Quartet stands out as an important Chamber Music group, performing in concerts at the Navy Museum, the Vasco da Gama Aquarium, the Belém Palace Museum, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Planetarium. We should also highlight the solo participation of the saxophone quartet together with the Portuguese Navy Band, playing Saxtory by Jérôme Naulais.
The programme presented by this chamber group, formed by four saxophone players who serve in the Portuguese Navy and whose motto is 'talant de bien faire', covers various styles, from classical works to jazz. The saxophone quartet is a very versatile group that adapts to different audiences and circumstances. Its programme includes very important composers, such as Claude Debussy, Astor Piazzolla, George Gershwin, and Scott Joplin.