Klarinet Archive - Posting 000276.txt from 1998/09

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Straight Saxes: Bolero
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 22:18:53 -0400

A few clarifications on this topic, which has seen a lot of opinion
recently:
1. Straight soprano Saxes in C are archaic since the depression.
2. Straight soprano Saxes in Bb are standard today.
3. The straight baritone Sax that Benny Moughton played extended to
(concert) Db below the bass staff; modern baris go to C. A Heckelphone
goes to A in the bass staff and a bass oboe, to B.
4. Ravel wrote Bolero for sopranino Sax in F, which is a dream, no
specimens are known; soprano in Bb, to cover a few notes that the
sopranino could not; and tenor in Bb, not C. The use of a sopranino was
only because Ravel was uncertain about the top note of the Bb soprano,
which is generally used today to play the second melody solo in
question. I have done so myself, having changed from playing the same
solo on tenor Sax a few bars earlier, and the first melody solo on oboe
d'amore a few bars before that. What a gas!

Hope this clarifies.

Robert Howe

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