Contrabass Digest

2002-05-02

Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 17:32:07 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] Contrabass flute


Contrabass flutes came up recently on the flute list.  A Belgian flute choir is apparently using one of the PVC contras, pictured at this link: http://community.webshots.com/photo/17833553/18466737njIQoihyVn   He says it plays well, and has provisions for amplification.  :-)

Enjoy,

Grant


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grant Green                    contrabass.com
Sarrusophones & other Contrabass Winds
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 04:17:11 +0100
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
From: Simon Bull


Nice to see that Jay Easton is in direct contact with Eppelsheim. This seems
to me to be a match made in heaven; on the one hand, a guy buried away in
his workshop, designing and building horns the like of which the world has
never seen, and he doesn't even know if the world wants, and on the other
hand, and on the other side of the world, a guy who can't wait to get his
hands on them. Should be fun...

On a slightly more serious note, I noticed in the last digest two references
to "subcontrabass" saxophones or tubaxe . I think this needs to be discussed.
If we are ever going to make it clear to composers and arrangers what we are
playing, and what we want them to write for, (and we do, right???) then I
think maybe it is time to try and standardise our terminology.

The tuba crowd have it down: F, Eb, CC, BBb. Everyone knows what these are,
and it is a very simple method of making it clear what is what.

Large (or "good") clarinets are more or less clear, with only the
contra-alto or Eb contrabass having two names, assuming that we all agree
that "contrabass clarinet ", without a specified key, means the big beast in BBb.

The great semi-mythological Leblancs that we all dream about, and have only
seen photos of, would then be in the keys of EEb, and BBBb.

So, on to saxes. A "subcontrabass", whether sax or tubax, would be an
instrument that sounds two octaves lower than a bass. Right? A contrabass
anything has to sound an octave lower than the bass instrument referred to,
as in contrabassoon, and "sub" means even lower than that. O.K., maybe not
an octave, but lower.

To crib from the tubas, if a "normal" tubax is in Eb, then the deeper
version, one size bigger, should be a BBb tubax. And the largest model of
saxophone that I know of (see photo on Jay's homepage) would be a
"contra-baritone" or Eb contrabass.

A contrabass saxophone, to use the clarinet terminology, has, to my
knowledge, never been built. Never mind a "subcontrabass". And even if it
had, how would you play it? And who's car would you drive to the gig in?

Look, I know we all like to think of _everything_ we play as being subcontra
something, we wouldn't be here at Grant's email house otherwise, but maybe
for the sake of being understood by the rest of the world, and being written
for by them, we should get this figured out.

Over to you.

Simon

P.S. Benedikt's new contrabass sarrusophone is in the key of CC.
--



---------------------------------------------------------

From: Hiiyaaa
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 22:30:35 EDT
Subject: [CB] recordings


       I know that these are requests that aren't necessarily contrabass in
full nature but i'll ask anyway.  Does anyone know any good recordings of
solos or literature for the following:  alto, bass, or contrabass flute   and
alto, bass, contra-alto or contrabass clarinet ?  If you could help me out
that'd be helpful!  Thanks.

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Spencer Parks"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 22:51:40 -0500


>So, on to saxes. A "subcontrabass", whether sax or tubax, would be an
>instrument that sounds _two_ octaves lower than a bass. Right?

No.  A Subcontrabass Sax would be one octave below a Bass Sax.  A Contrabass Sax is one octave below a Baritone Sax.

>And the largest model of
>saxophone that I know of (see photo on Jay's homepage) would be a
>"contra-baritone" or Eb contrabass.

True.  There have been rumors about a Subcontrabass Sax being made at one point, but it seems to me that that was either a prop or a prototype or never existed at all.

>A contrabass saxophone, to use the clarinet terminology, has, to my
>knowledge, never been built.

To use clarinet terminology, you are probably right because that would mean that it WOULD be one octave below the Bass Sax.  But one has been made, many times.  We can't exactly use (this is my not very knowledgable (sp?) mind talking) clarinet terminology here because we are talking about Saxes.  For some reason, these different types of instruments have different terms.  With Clarinet terminology, the real Contrabass Sax should then be called a Contra-alto Sax.  Am I right?  And then the mysterious Subcontrabass Sax would be the "real" Contrabass Sax.  But it's not so we have to stick to the way it is.   I guess.

SJP


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com

---------------------------------------------------------

From: RBobo123
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 00:02:46 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]


In a message dated 5/1/02 9:52:43 PM, ilylamp writes:

<< For some reason, these different types of instruments have different terms. 
With Clarinet terminology, the real Contrabass Sax should then be called a
Contra-alto Sax.  Am I right?  And then the mysterious Subcontrabass Sax
would be the "real" Contrabass Sax.  But it's not so we have to stick to the
way it is.   I guess. >>

Actually, it's my understanding that strictly speaking, an Eb Contrabass Sax
would be called a Eb Contra-Baritone sax as it is an octave below the
Baritone sax.  A Contrabass Sax would be the current "Subcontrabass Sax". The
Contralto clarinet is called such because it is one octave below the Alto
clarinet (since there is no tenor or baritone clarinet)

        - Richard S. Bobo (Double Reeds, Flute, Saxes)
---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 09:33:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Andrew Phillips
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]


Ah, yes, the old pitch debate
Here are the instruments that have the same
transposition as far as clarinets/saxes go
sopranino - sopranino
soprano - soprano
alto - alto
bass - tenor
contra-alto - baritone
contrabass - bass
octo-contra alto - contrabass

It's unfortunate that this wasn't cleared up a while
ago.  If you really want to go back, recorders were
one of the earlier families and they're different than
either of those two.  Here's an overview of them

Garklein in c'''
Sopranino in f''
Soprano (descant) in c''
Alto (treble) in f'
Tenor in c'    - concert pitch
Bass in f
Great bass in c
Contrabass in F
Subcontrabass in C
Contra-subcontrabass in F,

So should we instead be calling something 'bass' when
it is an octave below the alto?  Well, we'd better
just stick to learning the terminology and leave bass
saxes and contrabass clarinets to transpose alike.
                           --Andrew Phillips


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness
http://health.yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
From: Eric Mumpower
Date: 02 May 2002 16:38:28 -0400


> If you really want to go back, recorders were
> one of the earlier families and they're different than
> either of those two.  Here's an overview of them

But, that, even, is an incomplete story, as, historically, recorder consorts
were not as tidily keyed as the canonical modern recorder consort. I don't
have my reference books handy to back this up, but a bit of web searching
indicates that, historically, altos (historically called "treble") were also
made in G and A, and tenors were also made in D (known as the "voice
flute"), and basses were made in both F and G.

:-)
***End of Contrabass Digest***

 
Next Digest ->
Previous Digest <-
Index
Top