Introduction to the Saxophone
What attracted you to the saxophone?
I’ve been asked this question many times. Well, the sound
of course. Next to the human voice it’s the most expressive
instrument and the one that closest resembles the human voice.
Like our voices the sax, or should I say the saxophonist is capable
of producing an extreme range of sounds from sad, haunting dark
tones to uplifting screams of laughter.
I don’t think anyone played the tenor more expressively than
Ben Webster, and the way he played those beautiful, low, breathy
notes… listen;
Makin’ Whoppee
from the recording “Soulville”
Screams; Let’s
Rock Tonite from the recording "Rock
& Roll Saxophonist"
Laughing; Chompin’ At The
Bit from the recording "Rock & Roll Saxophonist"
You can’t get a better laugh out of another instrument. This
is one of my favorite gimmicks… hey, the kids love it. On
this example the sax is going through a wah-wah pedal.
Part 1) From the beginning
Part 2) Classical
Part 3) Swing... the other beginning
Part 4) Rhythm and Blues / Rock and Roll
Part 1 - It Came from Belgium…
Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1842 making it one of the
newest instruments. I’ve heard some people call it a brass
instrument but although it’s made from a certain type of brass,
it uses a single reed on the mouthpiece to make the sound which
puts it in the woodwind family, like the clarinet. Other woodwinds
are the oboe, bassoon, and bagpipes, these use double reeds. The
recorder and flute are woodwinds as well.
Appearantly Sax drew up plans for 14 different types of saxophones.
I don’t know how far he got building them all but I’ve
heard of 10 and seen 8. The 6 pictured below from left to right
are; sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass.
The other 4 I know of that aren’t pictured here are the sopranissimo,
even smaller than the sopranino, C melody, which
would fit between the alto and tenor, the contrabass,
and subcontrabass which are bigger than the bass!
Some of these come in different shapes like the curved soprano and
the straight tenor. The most popular ones are soprano, alto, tenor,
and baritone and these are the voices that make up a saxophone
quartet.
Hard to imagine now but the saxophone didn’t gain
instant popularity... quite the opposite.
Mr. Sax apparently worked hard to get his new invention to composers
and band leaders but the instrumentation of the orchestra had been
established for many years and nobody wanted to add a sax section,
imagine that... I know a lot of sax fans that wished it would have
happened differently, myself included!
Sax became the first professor of saxophone at
the Paris Conservatory in 1858.
Method books were written and a few more composers were writing
for the instrument and finally in 1885 the first one was made in
the United States.
Part 2 - Rudy Wiedoeft: America’s first sax star?
There was a bit of a sax craze in America in the early 1900’s
and a man who was partly responsible for it was the virtuoso Rudy
Wiedoeft. Although not widely known today he was very popular in
his time. He was an excellent saxophonist with classical training
but recorded his own pop style, vaudville, and novelty songs. Stylistically
he was rooted in ragtime and classical, pre-jazz era. His saxes
of choice were the alto and the C melody, which has been out of
production since the early 1930's.
Rudy's own Valse Vanite
Now into the 1930’s the classical saxophone had some well
known players;
Marcel Mule, from France, Sigurd Rascher,
German/American, and later the American Eugene Rousseau.
These guys were performing, recording and having music composed
for them.
For most “legit” saxophonists the alto was by far the
most popular choice.
Eugene Rousseau sonata for alto
sax and piano
The saxophone didn’t make it into the classical orchestra
as a section but that didn’t stop people from writing and
arranging for saxophone quartets... from Bach to Bartok to Ellington.
The sax quartet... it's a beautiful thing!
World Saxophone Quartet plays Ellington
Speaking of Ellington, it's time for... Part
3… Swing... a new voice
speaks
JF |
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