Klarinet Archive - Posting 000133.txt from 2003/11

From: "Abraham Gamboa" <abraham.gamboa@-----.br>
Subj: Re: [kl] please excuse a saxophone question....
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 23:50:01 -0500

Hey Bill, man what a quick class in sax history. Have you read Dr. Fred
Hemke's dissertation (The Early History of the Saxophone)??
I also wanted to get Paul Brodie's book about the sax factories and all. You
are very knowledgeable and generous..thanks for the insights. I had a Martin
Silver Plated Committee some yrs ago and I liked its high Eb to F (three
line and 4 spaces above the staff) using the F altissmo register key and
palm keys, they were really in tune and easy to finger. I don't know if this
is true of all Martin Committees or that pacticular horn. I now play a tenor
"The Martin" and really enjoy it's sound!!! Abraham
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hausmann" <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] please excuse a saxophone question....

> At 08:49 PM 11/7/2003 -0800, Frank P. Galiani wrote:
> >I've just acquired a 1926 Martin Handcraft, not yet in playing condition.
Can
> >you tell me anything about this horn, such as what level (student,
> >intermediate, etc.), or any other observations about the Handcraft? I've
> >played clarinet for a few years but am entirely new to saxophones.
>
> Back in those days they didn't make student horns, so it was the pro model
> of the day. Along with Conn and Buescher, all of Elkhart, IN, Martin was
> one of the top instrument makers of that time. Martin saxes (even the
> stencil models they made for others) can always be identified by their
> heavy, soldered-on tone hole chimneys, unlike the usual
drawn-from-the-body
> type. Be aware that occasionally leaks develop in the solder joints. The
> horns tend to be very heavy, and are reputed to have a "dark" sound
> (whatever that means). Tex Beneke played Martins back in his Glenn Miller
> days, and Art Pepper was also a Martin player.
>
> Henry Martin first established the company in Chicago in 1890, but
> production was interrupted by the great Chicago fire in 1906. Martin's
> three sons then re-established the company in Elkhart, after leaving their
> employment at Conn. (Gus Buescher had also worked for Conn, as plant
> foreman, quitting to form his own company in 1888.)
>
> I started playing saxophone sometime after I graduated from college,
buying
> a C-Melody sax at an antique auction, repadding it, and then learning to
> play it. That $50 sax has since cost me a fortune, counting what I have
> invested in various saxes of numerous sizes. Of course, they have earned
> some of that back on gigs, too. Or, at least, I COULD say that if I had
> not spent all the money on various CLARINETS of numerous sizes! Some say
> the sax embouchure is vastly different from the clarinet embouchure, but I
> don't really see that much difference myself, except that the sax
> embouchure is less rigid, and vibrato is encouraged. Fingering in both
sax
> registers is essentially the same as the clarinet clarion register (the
> register key jumps the octave, rather than the 12th) so it is a reasonably
> logical double for clarinetists. Good luck on learning sax. Many pit
gigs
> could come from that! (I'm playing clarinet and tenor for "Bye, Bye
Birdie"
> locally in December.)
>
> Bill Hausmann
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!
>
>
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