Saxophone Saxophone

The saxophone (also referred to as the sax) is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. Adolphe Sax wanted to create a group or series of instruments that would be the most powerful and vocal of the woodwinds, and the most adaptive of the brass instruments, that would fill the vacant middle ground between the two sections. He patented the saxophone on June 28, 1846, in two groups of seven instruments each. Each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for military bands, have proved extremely popular and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. Instruments from the so-called "orchestral" series, pitched in C and F, never gained a foothold, and the B♭ and E♭ instruments have now replaced the C and F instruments when the saxophone is used in the orchestra.

The saxophone is used in classical music (such as concert bands, chamber music, and solo repertoire), military bands (such as military concert bands, marching bands, etc.), marching bands, and jazz (such as big bands, jazz combos, etc.). Saxophone players are called saxophonists.

History

The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, and clarinetist born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had made several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics and extending its lower range. Sax was also a maker of the then-popular ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with these two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and the agility of a woodwind. He wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblew at the octave, would have identical fingering for both registers.

Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet.^{[clarification needed]}

Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, a 15-year patent for the instrument on June 28, 1846. The patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered "orchestral", there is no evidence that Sax intended this. As only 3 percent of Sax's surviving production were pitched in F and C, and as contemporary composers used the E♭ alto and B♭ bass saxophone freely in orchestral music, it is almost certain that Sax experimented to find the most suitable keys for these instruments, settling upon instruments alternating between E♭ and B♭ rather than those pitched in F or C, for reasons of tone and economy (the saxophones were the most expensive wind instruments of their day). The C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. All the instruments were given an initial written range from the B below the treble staff to the F, one space above the three ledger lines above staff, giving each saxophone a range of two and a half octaves.

Sax's patent expired in 1866; thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design and keywork. The first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification. This extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings will allow the player to play easily and as fast as they can. The player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, and big interval jumps.

Sax's original keywork, which was based on the Triebert system 3 oboe for the left hand and the Boehm clarinet for the right, was very simplistic and made playing some legato passages and wide intervals extremely difficult to finger, so numerous developers added extra keys and alternate fingerings to make chromatic playing less difficult. While the early saxophone had two separate octave vents to assist in the playing of the upper registers just as modern instruments do, players of Sax's original design had to operate these via two separate octave keys operated by the left thumb. A substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. Further developments were made by Selmer in the 1930s and 40s, including offsetting tone holes and revamping the octave key mechanism, beginning with their balanced action instruments and continuing through their celebrated Mark VI line.^{[citation needed]} One of the most radical, however temporary, revisions of saxophone keywork was made in the 1950s by M. Houvenaghel of Paris, who completely redeveloped the mechanics of the system to allow a number of notes (C♯, B, A, G, F and E♭) to be flattened by a semitone simply by pressing the right middle finger. This enables a chromatic scale to be played over two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit.^[7] However, this keywork never gained much popularity, and is no longer in use.

Uses

Uses in military bands and classical music

The saxophone first gained popularity in one of the uses it was designed for: the military band. Although the instrument was studiously ignored in Germany at first, French and Belgian military bands took full advantage of the instrument that Sax had designed. Most French and Belgian military bands incorporate at least a quartet of saxophones comprising at least the E♭ baritone, B♭ tenor, E♭ alto and B♭ soprano. These four instruments have proved the most popular of all of Sax's creations, with the E♭ contrabass and B♭ bass usually considered impractically large and the E♭ sopranino insufficiently powerful. British military bands tend to include at minimum two saxophonists on the alto and tenor. Today, the saxophone is used in military bands all around the world.

The saxophone was subsequently introduced into the concert band, which generally calls for the E♭ alto saxophone, the B♭ tenor saxophone, and the E♭ baritone saxophone. The typical high-level^{[clarification needed]} concert band includes two altos, one tenor, and one baritone. The B♭ soprano saxophone is also occasionally used, in which case it is normally played by the first alto saxophonist. The bass saxophone in B♭ is called for in some concert band music (especially music by Percy Grainger).^{[citation needed]}

The saxophone is used in chamber music, such as the saxophone quartet, reed quintet, and other chamber combinations of instruments.

The classical saxophone quartet consists of the soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and baritone saxophone. There is a repertoire of classical compositions and arrangements for the SATB instrumentation dating back to the nineteenth century, particularly by French composers who knew Adolphe Sax. Classical saxophone quartets include Quatuor Habanera, the h2 quartet, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, the New Century Saxophone Quartet, and others. Historically, the quartets led by Marcel Mule and Daniel Deffayet, saxophone professors at the Conservatoire de Paris, were started in 1928 and 1953, respectively, and were highly regarded. The Mule quartet is often considered the prototype for future quartets, due the level of virtuosity demonstrated by its members and its central role in the development of the quartet repertoire. However, organised quartets did exist before Mule's ensemble, the prime example being the quartet headed by Eduard Lefebre (1834–1911), former soloist with the Sousa band, in the United States c. 1904–1911. Other ensembles most likely existed at this time as part of the saxophone sections of the many touring professional bands that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^{[citation needed]}

The saxophone is a member of the reed quintet. The reed quintet consists of an oboe, a clarinet, a saxophone, a bass clarinet, and a bassoon.^{[citation needed]}

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the saxophone has found increased popularity in the symphony orchestra. In one or other size, the instrument has also been found as a useful accompaniment to genres as wide-ranging as opera and choral music. Many musical theatre scores include parts for the saxophone, sometimes doubling another woodwind or brass instrument. In this way, the sax serves as a middle point between other woodwinds and the brass section, helping to blend the two sections.