 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Barrie Marshall
Date: 2003-07-30 18:14
Another bit about the saxophone on CBB, I have a couple of magazines put out by Conn in the thirties called 'The Musical Truth' they have what looks like millions of photographs of people all over the planet playing Conns, and of course they are full of adds for Conn instruments, one of them has an add for a new saxophone, 'a Mezzo Soprano in F' some musicians dont believe they existed and I have to do a photocopy as proof, has anybody got one?
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-30 19:01
I saw one once, prob. tried to buy it, no luck. Few and far between! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-30 20:08
TKS, GBK, very interesting, made note of the serial #/date column, so, to justify talking about saxes here [M C, a sax BB before long?], is there a similar tabulation re: their clarinets?, since we do talk about them often. I had to look at my OLD Am. Std. [Cleve.] tenor to be sure it wasn't a Conn. It is also deficient of the top button for the High F, but has that "repairer's-delight" [#@(*&^%$] small resonance? pad just above the low Eb pad. Still remember my old [1st] Buescher! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-07-30 20:34
Don said:
>Still remember my old [1st] Buescher!
Aside from my Mark VI tenor, I actually enjoy playing my Buescher (LP) True Tone tenor (#74xxx) from 1920 even more. As it was lacking a front high F key, I had my tech add one for convenience.
Saxophones from that era had a completely different sound (and certainly weighed a lot more) ...GBK
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-30 21:34
Ah, Memories, [as in "Cats"], yes, that heavy gold-washed-bell silver True-Tone 1935 alto, intonation and dance band problems long forgotton! My "semi-antique" M 6 and LeB 100 altos are so much better! Wish I had the opportunity to play some jazz again. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Barrie Marshall
Date: 2003-07-30 21:59
Yea, I have a Buescher Low Pitch True-Tone Alto with an old Selmer C** mouthpiece, a gorgeous vintage, mellow sound.
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-07-30 22:35
The folklore is that Conn made and marketed the F and C series of saxophones for orchestral use, as opposed to military band, along the lines of Sax's original concept, see below 1). Of course the most popular proved to be the C tenor or C Melody. The C soprano appears to have had a short burst of popularity. The sopranos are quite a collectors item but really need to be played with the original mouthpiece which takes a sop reed but is physically shorter to keep true to pitch. The same applies with C melody mouthpieces although these are still made. There was an F baritone, actually made, and a C bass which didn't make it into production. The least popular was the F alto or mezzo soprano. The great majority did not sell and were returned to the company. They were used to train instrument makers and repairers in saxophone repair. The F & C series of saxophones were made by other makers but most examples are nineteenth century. I have seen a couple of Italian made F mezzos down to low B only and one Hawkes and Co. made in England also down to low B only. Most of these older horns are also only keyed as high as Eb. There were brass instruments also made in alternating C and F sizes at various times.
1) There is a published Sax catalogue Haine, M. (1980) Adolphe Sax, Sa vie son oeuvre, ses instruments des musique University of Brussells which contains alternating sets of brass and woodwind in coth F & C and Bb and Eb. This catalogue is from the latter part of the ninetennth century. Likewise further proof of the existence can be found in Horwood, W. (1980) Adolphe Sax 1814- 1894 Bramley Books Yorkshire.
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