~ Trombone a six pistons - 1866
photo: Rama
Today is the birthday of Belgian inventor and musician,
Adolphe Sax,
who invented the saxophone, which bears his name. But he also invented
many other strange brass instruments, most lost in the thrash bin of
history only to be dredged up occasionally by special groups of musicians interested
in strange instruments.
I saw some of his bizarre designs when I was in
Vermillion in
South Dakota. The
University of South Dakota is home to the
National Music Museum
which has over 15,000 American, European, and non-Western instruments;
it is one of the world's largest collections of music instruments.
Hector Berlioz
discovered the instruments Sax was inventing at the time, fell in love with them and utilized them in his works. He
liked the sound of brass instruments and used them in many of his works.
In 1844, Sax invented the
Saxtromba which was designed for the mounted bands of the French military, probably as a substitute for the
French horn. The saxotrombas comprised a family of
half-tube instruments of different pitches. The name of the instrument combines Sax's surname with the Italian word for "trumpet" (
tromba). By about 1867 the saxotromba was no longer being used by the French military.
~ ~ ~
The
Saxhorn is a family of valved
brass instruments (although at one point ten different sizes seem to have existed). Designed for band use, they are pitched alternately in E
♭ and B
♭, like the
saxophone group.
that have conical bores and deep cup-shaped
mouthpieces.
Modern saxhorns are still manufactured and in use. The B
♭ soprano saxhorn is called a
flugelhorn.
Joe Bishop, a member of the
Woody Herman band in 1936, was one of the earliest jazz musicians to use the flugelhorn.
Shorty Rogers and
Kenny Baker began playing it in the early fifties, and
Clark Terry used it in the
Duke Ellington orchestra in the mid-1950s.
Chet Baker recorded several albums on the instrument in the 1950s and 1960s.
Miles Davis popularized the instrument in jazz on the albums
Miles Ahead and
Sketches of Spain, (both arranged by
Gil Evans).
Sketches is my favorite album by Davis. Other prominent flugelhorn players include
Freddie Hubbard,
Tom Browne,
Lee Morgan,
Bill Dixon,
Wilbur Harden,
Art Farmer,
Roy Hargrove,
Randy Brecker,
Hugh Masekela,
Tony Guerrero,
Jimmy Owens,
Terumasa Hino,
Woody Shaw,
Guido Basso,
Kenny Wheeler,
Tom Harrell,
Bill Coleman,
Thad Jones,
Arturo Sandoval,
Lee Loughnane of the rock band
Chicago,
Mike Metheny,
Harry Beckett,
Ack van Rooyen and
Maynard Ferguson. My favorite album by Ferguson is
Conquistador released in 1977, I used the title song for the opening of the
Obiko Art to Wear show,
Tribal Visions, at the
Fort Mason center in
San Francisco in 1989 (
link below).
Most jazz flugelhorn players use the instrument as an auxiliary to the trumpet, but in the 1970s
Chuck Mangione gave up playing the trumpet and concentrated on the flugelhorn alone, notably on his jazz-pop hit song
Feels So Good. Mangione, in an interview on
ABC during the
1980 Winter Olympics, for which he wrote the theme
Give It All You Got, referred to the flugelhorn as "the right baseball glove".
~ ~ ~
The bass saxhorn was built by
Adolphe Sax
in 1863. This instrument features several innovations by Sax, including
his six independant valve system and a pavillon tournant, or moveable
bell that can be adjusted by the player to direct the sound of the
instrument. Sax’s system of six independent valves was devised to
correct the intonation problems of typical three-valve instruments,
which can sound out of tune when valves are used in combination. Sax
made a wide range of instruments with this system, including saxhorns,
trombones, trumpets, cornets and horns. Saxhorns like this were featured
in the Banda, or stage band of the Paris Opéra that Sax formed and
directed from 1847 to 1892.
~ ~ ~
Sax’s
system of six independent valves was devised to correct the intonation
problems of typical three-valve instruments, which can sound out of tune
when valves are used in combination. Valve trombones were useful in
situations where using a slide was awkward, such as while marching or
playing in a cramped orchestra pit.
Tenor valve Trombone with six pistons - 1866
The
valve system used on this instrument is detailed in Sax’s 1859 patent
(France, No. 39371). It is an ascending system, since the valves do not
add extra tubing to the instrument’s length. Instead each of them
isolates different amounts of the instrument’s total tubing. Each valve
is to be used on its own and causes the instrument to sound a half-tone
lower than the previous valve. Sax applied his six-valve independent
system mostly to saxhorns and trombones.
Also
detailed in the 1859 patent is the valve venting system seen on this
trombone. Instead of having a vent hole in the bottom of each valve cap
as is usual, the casing of each valve has an external tube for venting.
This was designed to make the instrument more durable. It permits air to
escape when the valve is depressed (like a typical perforated valve
cap) but prevents dust from entering the casing.
Despite
these innovations and the quality of their construction, Sax's
six-valve instruments did not achieve lasting popularity. Players were
reluctant to learn such a radically different fingering system and the
instruments were much heavier to hold than conventional three-valve
models.
~ ~ ~
In the 1770s, the French artist
Jacques-Louis David carried out extensive researches into the ancient Roman instruments that appeared on
Trajan's Column in Rome. Two of these instruments – the straight
Roman tuba and the curved
cornu – were revived in
Revolutionary France as the
buccina and
tuba curva. To devise the saxtubas Sax merely added valves to these natural instruments, thus providing them with chromatic
compasses.
Furthermore, he designed them in such a way that the valves were hidden
from general view, thus giving the impression that the instruments were
primitive
natural trumpets only capable of playing notes from a single
harmonic series.
~ ~ ~
And last, but certainly not least, is my favorite instrument for pop music, the alto saxophone, also referred to as the alto sax or simply the alto, is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Invented by Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846, it is pitched in E♭ and smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is commonly used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, and jazz (such as big bands, jazz combos, swing music). The fingerings of the different saxophones are all the same so a saxophone player can play any type of saxophone.
Altsaxofon
photo by Mikael Bodner
The alto saxophone had a prominent role in the development of
jazz. Influential jazz musicians who made significant contributions
include Don Redman, Jimmy Dorsey, Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Paul Desmond, Cannonball Adderley and Stan Getz.
Of all the above mentioned jazz artists my very favorite is the
Stan Getz 1977 recording of
Another World. The title song is an extraordinary experimental sonic voyage (
links below).
In 1863, a saxophone solo, composed by Jean Baptiste Singelee, was commissioned and published by Sax himself. There is a recording of it (link below)
played by Randy Emerick on an original Adolphe Sax baritone saxophone
made in 1861 at Sax's first saxophone factory. The piece, Septieme Solo de Concert, would have been first played on an identical baritone saxophone.
The musicians are:
Randy Emerick, 1861 Adolphe Sax baritone saxophone
Richard Brookens, soprano saxophone
Neal Bonsanti, alto saxophone
Scott Klarman, tenor saxophone
In 2015,
Google celebrated the 201st birthday of Adolphe Sax with a series of
Google Doodles created by Lydia Nichols that feature Sax with his various musical instruments.
design by Lydia Nichols
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
YouTube links:
Happy birthday, Adolphe & thanks for the cool tunes!
