"I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder"
About this Quote
The joke lands on the last word: “but louder.” It’s funny because it’s true, and because it admits the one thing you can’t aestheticize away. You can ask for oboe-like focus and viola-like grain, but the sax’s physical reality is amplitude, projection, an unavoidable presence. The line is also a quiet warning to young composers: conceptual metaphors help, but they don’t override acoustics. A saxophone will announce itself, even when you’re trying to make it behave.
Context matters here. Bryars comes out of a postwar British scene that treated genre boundaries as optional and timbre as a primary compositional material. His work often thrives on restraint, long lines, and forensic attention to sound-color. The remark reads like a field note from that world: a practical tip from a player, reframed as a miniature aesthetic manifesto. It’s orchestration as cultural negotiation - borrowing the oboe’s austerity and the viola’s interiority to “civilize” an instrument that, by design, refuses to be background.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bryars, Gavin. (2026, January 15). I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-remember-once-when-i-started-writing-for-the-150656/
Chicago Style
Bryars, Gavin. "I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-remember-once-when-i-started-writing-for-the-150656/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-remember-once-when-i-started-writing-for-the-150656/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
