Klarinet Archive - Posting 000883.txt from 1998/04

From: "Emerald1" <emerald1@-----.net>
Subj: The Ab Clarinet, Bass Sax, Sopranissimo, and a bunch of other stuff...
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 06:05:04 -0400

The bass saxophone; well I'd never classify it as a novelty instrument.
There's a lot of them out there; and they're still fairly popular; and
they've made a giant comeback in the past ten years. To my knowledge
they're manufactured by Selmer, Keilwerth, and L.A. Sax (in decreasing order
of price.) the cheapest being about $7,500 (L.A.) the most expensive about
$9,900 (Selmer) ((Those are street values, not retail!). The sopranissimo
is a piccolo saxophone pitched in Bb one octave above the soprano; I have no
knowledge of any company who still makes it!!!
There's a lot of clarinet choir literature that calls for the Ab
clarinet; can't name any right off hand though!
As for this circular breathing argument, I perfected it (if you can call
it that :-p) about a year ago; and it's served me well. Sometimes I could
consider it a circus trick; but often it is a true form of technique!!!
Tristan Carpenter