Klarinet Archive - Posting 001130.txt from 2003/06

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re:Berlioz Saxophone reference--help requested.
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 10:17:04 -0400

Hello all,

I am in a jam. My paper in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument
Society, 'Invention and Development of the Saxophone 1840-55', goes to the
printer tomorrow. The editor has at the last second found a likely error,
which I describe below. To check this I need to see volume 8b of the New
Berlioz Edition, "La Damnation de Faust", edited by Julian Rushton, page
459. (Kassel and New York, Barenreiter, 1981). There's two copies of the
New Berlioz Edition within 50 miles of me. One library (at Smith) is close=
d
until September for renovation and the other (at UMass) opens tomorrow at 1=
1
am. =20

If anyone can get to this book by 10:00 Eastern time on Monday, I will be
grateful if you can check this matter and email the answer to me, at

arehow@-----.net
and at
arehow@-----.net

or, better, to my editor, Thomas MacCracken, at
tgmacc@-----.net

The question:

In the illustration, Berlioz indicates two saxophones in the score. The
staves are blank and the names crossed over. Do they read:

saxophone "tenor en Es Mi b" and "basse en Si b"

or is it

"tenor in Es Mib" and "basse in B b"? (in both cases with the accent on the
"e" in "tenor")

or some combination of these?

Many thanks,

Robert Howe

For the =C9pilogue (Dans le ciel) of La Damnation de Faust, Berlioz
contemplated using Saxophone t=E9nor in Es Mib and Saxophone basse in Bb bu=
t
left the staves blank (New Berlioz Edition volume 8b, p. 459).

Does the original French really say that the 2nd (bass) sax is "in B b"? Th=
e
French, as you know, do not use alphabet letters but rather solfege
syllables to name notes of the scale; what we call B, they call Si. So I'm
guessing this should read "en Si b"...

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