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Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

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Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#21

Post by jacquesm »

bjoli wrote: post #9
dmoy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also makes it stupid difficult to do clean sounding smooth octave jumps on a clarinet.

On one hand, it seems harder to learn, on the other: clarinet is the king of large jumps. The shit the clarinet soloists that come to my orchestra squeak out would be impossible to do that cleanly on my instrument (bassoon), even though large jumps on bassoon is considered easy. And it isn't just a Martin Fröst thing. I played recently with Christoffer Sundqvist, Emil jonasson and Harri Mäki (as well as with Fröst on…

Yes, I think you are 100% right. On the sax large jumps are super hard because there are so many modes of resonance to choose from and they all 'work' to some extent. If the instrument already has a strong preference for one such mode you can hit it flawlessly no matter where you come from. > 1 octave jumps on the sax were always hard for me no matter how much I practiced especially when going up I kept getting the weirdest (and sometimes pleasant but hard to reproduce) sound effects!

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#23

Post by jojobas »

samplenoise wrote: post #19
jojobas wrote: post #4

Fun fact: a cone open on one end (saxophone) supports all harmonics, as does a cylinder open on both ends (flute). A cylinder open on one end (clarinet) only supports odd harmonics, which is why a clarinet sounds "rounded" and overblows into a twelfth, rather than an octave (as on former two).

Which is also why saxophones can be made to sound like an organ (one open end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFlxwvKLz4&gl=BE

Or rather an organ has pipes of all possible kinds and can sound like pretty much anything.

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#24

Post by leguminous »

bobf wrote: post #3

I played clarinet, piano, and guitar growing up, but before reading this I had no idea about the story of the relatively modern (i.e. post industrial revolution) invention of the saxophone. I never played jazz, but certainly appreciate it and this quote from the article really struck a chord with me, "Without jazz, what would music be? But without the sax, what would jazz be?"

I find it fascinating that many of these instruments did not exist in their modern forms until around the same period. Playing clarinet in school, I had never really considered that our instruments weren't necessarily the same as the ones a piece had been composed for.

* The development of airtight pads for the clarinet in 1812 allowed manufacturers to add more keys, culminating in the modern Boehm system in 1839. The earlier clarinets looked like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3NCGSvKHCQ

* Between around 1800-1850, the piano gained the cast iron plate, stronger steel wires, and the double escapement action. 88 keys weren't common until the latter part of the century. Earlier pianos (fortepianos) looked like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ef95BZfYcw

* Antonio de Torres is credited with developing the modern classical guitar starting in the 1850's. Steel string guitars were developed later, and were made commercially by Gibson and Martin starting in the 1920's.

I also played the clarinet in school, took piano lessons at home, and am currently learning guitar. Great choices!

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#25

Post by siltpotato »

jacquesm wrote: post #20
samplenoise wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is also why saxophones can be made to sound like an organ (one open end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFlxwvKLz4&gl=BE

That's very beautiful, wow, thank you for posting this. For a lark I once played organ pipes of an organ that was being decommissioned. It is absolutely incredible how much air that requires, a 8' pipe I could just about get to resonate, and once they resonate it becomes a lot easier because you have some backpressure but that initial rush to get the reed to move at all is quite literally breathtaking.

Are you meaning to say you blew, with your mouth, into an organ pipe?

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#26

Post by ibiza »

bobf wrote: post #3

I played clarinet, piano, and guitar growing up, but before reading this I had no idea about the story of the relatively modern (i.e. post industrial revolution) invention of the saxophone. I never played jazz, but certainly appreciate it and this quote from the article really struck a chord with me, "Without jazz, what would music be? But without the sax, what would jazz be?"

> jazz was 'pummelled' by fanatics of rhythm and noise, which even discredited the sax

Sadly, I find this to be the case. I'm in the odd position of having grown up playing sax, and yet unable to enjoy it in the context of jazz.

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#27

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a whole range of instruments going from I know but I simply didn't have the vocabulary to distinguish them by name or type, so emphasised their common size and appearance. Thanks for the comprhensive answer, and never even heard of Morphine, ta for that!

You're welcome. For some other really nice saxophone: Anything by Steps Ahead, Grover Washington's record 'mister magic'. If you want more drop me a line by email, I'll do some digging in my collection. To give an idea of the range of saxophones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopranino_saxophone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XqwC1NmtG4 to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcontrabass_saxophone https://www.youtube.co…

The sax solo that starts around 5:30 is my favorite ever, and I say that as a longtime Morphine fan. Never got into jazz much though...

https://music.apple.com/us/album/city-on-down-live/488251077...

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#28

Post by jacquesm »

jacquesm wrote: post #20
samplenoise wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is also why saxophones can be made to sound like an organ (one open end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFlxwvKLz4&gl=BE

That's very beautiful, wow, thank you for posting this. For a lark I once played organ pipes of an organ that was being decommissioned. It is absolutely incredible how much air that requires, a 8' pipe I could just about get to resonate, and once they resonate it becomes a lot easier because you have some backpressure but that initial rush to get the reed to move at all is quite literally breathtaking.

To answer the 'dead' comment below: yes, I actually did. Nicely cleaned it and I'm aware what organ metal is made of (it is not the safest substance in the world). Would recommend.

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#29

Post by philg_jr »

If anyone is curious about some modern fusion of EDM and the saxophone, check out Big Gigantic (Dominic Lalli, tenor sax) and GRiZ (mostly alto sax). Seeing either of these guys live is more fun than I can describe. Also, Lalli put out a jazz album recently with a few other musicians, "A Blind Man's Blue".

Re: Adolphe Sax, Inventor of the Saxophone

#30

Post by jacquesm »

jojobas wrote: post #23
samplenoise wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is also why saxophones can be made to sound like an organ (one open end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFlxwvKLz4&gl=BE

Or rather an organ has pipes of all possible kinds and can sound like pretty much anything.

Think of it as a proto-synthesizer.
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