The opportunity to write for the Proteus Saxophone Quartet was an exciting venture that fell in line with my creative direction. My first work for saxophone was the original Whimsical Sketches of Fanciful Birds (PE152) collection of works for alto saxophone and piano, a collection of cartoon-inspired musical portraits of various species of bird. I found the creation of that collection so rewarding that I wrote two more, also for alto saxophone and piano. I wanted the next collection to be for saxophone quartet, and inspired by the collective nouns for five different species of bird. Each collective noun provided many imaginative possibilities to draw from, and many musical ideas to explore within the saxophone quartet instrumentation. To give the collection a fun twist, I decided to write an optional drum kit part for each movement so that each "gang" could have their own distinguishing rhythm section.
