___________________________________________________ | | |CONTRABASS-L | | An email list for discussion of bass and | | contrabass instruments of all kinds. | | Contact gdgreen@crl.com for subscription. | | See www.crl.com/~gdgreen/c-arch1.html for | | back issues. | |___________________________________________________|
Vol. 1, No. 62
6 December 1996
From: Francis Firth
<Francis.Firth@uce.ac.uk>
Subject: Saxophone
Choirs
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 96 13:02:00 GMT
Grant,
No doubt you've noticed the free CD with you November Saxophone Journal. I see that it includes David Bilger conducting the Saxophone Sinfonia which says it includes a contrabass saxophone, although I couldn't hear it too well on the free selections included on the disc.
Anyone have the 2 CD set? How is the contrabass sax on that?
Francis Firth
Francis.Firth@uce.ac.uk
Author: gdgreen@crl.com (GDG) at SMTP
Date:
12/4/96 9:40 AM
TO: Francis Firth
<Francis.Firth@uce.ac.uk> at SMTP
Subject: Re:
Saxophone Choirs
>Grant,
>No doubt you've noticed the free CD with you November Saxophone Journal.
>I see that it includes David Bilger conducting the Saxophone Sinfonia which
>says it includes a contrabass saxophone, although I couldn't hear it too
>well on the free selections included on the disc.
>Anyone have the 2 CD set? How is the contrabass sax on that?
>Francis Firth
>Francis.Firth@uce.ac.uk
I actually haven't listened to it yet. Between the move and everything else, I've only barely looked at the Nov. SJ (actually, I've only read Paul Cohen's column). Now I have to find where I packed those SJ CDs!
I just happened to have the issue with me today. I note that the write-up says that the pieces were arranged for ... 1 contrabass, but doesn't specifically say that they're played including the contra. Maybe? Maybe not? I'll listen to it as soon as I find it.
Grant
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 09:57:57 -0600
From:
cfail@mindspring.com (Charles Fail)
Subject: Re: Selmer
Rosewood Contra
Dear Mr. Green:
We made a mistake. The Selmer rosewood is a contra alto. We also just got a Leblanc loop style contra alto clarinet. Sorry for the mistake.
Thanks for posting my memo.
Thanks
Russell Fail
>At 08:09 PM 11/26/96 -0800, you wrote:
>>Dear Mr. Green:
>>Just a note to let you know that we have just acquired a Selmer series
>>9 rosewood contrabass clarinet and a Leblanc metal contrabass in case
>>you or someone you know might be looking for one. Hope all is well with
>>you.
>>Russell Fail
>>Charles Fail Music
>>
>Thanks for letting me know. As it turns out, I'm hosting an email list for
>people interested in contrabass instruments: I'm sure that a few of the
>subscribers will be interested. Is there an asking price for the contras?
>Thanks,
>Grant Green
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 08:09:12 -0800
(PST)
From: Philip Neuman
<neuman@uofport.edu>
Subject: Re: Contrabass-L No.
61
I am a fan of the baroque rackett as well. In addition to the 150 plus renaissance racketts we've built, I have made 2 baroque racketts after Wyne (c.1700). I have not found any period works specifying rackett (ren. or bar.), but there is a dance by Moritz that specifies sordune, so anything is possible. I imagine that the bar. rackett was considered a variant of the bassoon, so I agree that it must have been used in the same way as bassoon was. I also imagine they used their insts. in any way they wanted just as we do today.
I heard that many years ago Otto Steinkopf was pressured by a customer to build a contrabass baroque rackett (an octave lower than the regular inst.) but I have no idea where it could be now.
Incidentally, our new Cd is out: "The One Horse Open Sleigh-19th c. Christmas Music on Original Instruments" by the ensemble De Organographia. Many period insts. are represented, incl. ophicleide, G bass and contrabass trombones, flageolets, czakan, ballad horn, clarinet, bassoon, harp, violin, square piano, and others. "Jingle Bells or the One Horse Open Sleigh" (1857), "Santa Claus" (Up on the House, 1866), "Hark, the Herald-angels sing" (1861), "Here we come a-wassailing" (1871), etc. If you would like to know more about it, please write me at neuman@uofport.edu
Philip Neuman
A contrabaroque rackett? Sounds like it would be huge: isn't the baroque rackett about the size of a great bass (contrabass) renaissance rackett? I'd think that with a conical bore, it could be an ungainly beast, with huge fingerholes. I wonder if the plans are still lying around somewhere...
Is "Sleigh" the CD with the ophicleide duet?
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 11:02:30 -0500 (EST)
From:
drumming man <lederman@inforamp.net>
Subject:
Adolphe Sax basshorn in "C"????
Hi, Grant;
Have you seen the watch commercial (often played mid-afternoon on CNN) that features a trio playing in an airplane (old stock footage)? There is a fellow in the trio that looks like he's playing a sarrusophone, but the kind fellows at COMMAND POST & TRANSFER captured the clip for me, and low-and-behold (pun intended) it appears to be a Bass Saxhorn, but with a reed mouthpiece instead of a brass mouthpiece! The clip is silent, and lasts only three seconds, but if you'd like to feature this as a MOV file on your website, tell me how to go about constructing such a file from videotape. Of course, I could be crazy, it might be some form of sarrusophone, but it looks like a bari-sax neck, and not a bocal. Any ideas?
STeven LEdERman
lederman@inforamp.net
I seem to have misplaced my original reply, but I'll try and recreate it.
I'd love to see the clip: could you tack it onto the end of the "Lowest of the Low" tape when you send it?
To put a video clip on the web, you'd need to convert it to an AVI or MOV file. To do that, I think you need a video capture board (which lets you plug a VCR into your computer and transfer data back and forth). I don't have one, and am not likely to get one any time soon (unless the price suddenly plummets to less than $200), but I do have a friend in Seattle who does video production. He might be prevailed upon to do a small transfer. And of course, we'll want to get permission from whoever owns the rights to the clip (probably the ad agency?).
As for what the beast is, my guess would be a bass saxophone in the form originally made (and patented) by Adolphe Sax. The patent drawings (which are available somewhere on the web) show that the first bass sax (in C, I think) was an instrument shaped much like the ophicleide, its probable ancestor.
Grant
Author: TOMMIE NASLUND
<ERAC.ERATEN@mesmtpse.ericsson.se>
Date: 12/3/96
10:40 PM
Subject: Holert = Kohlert?
Hello Mike and Grant!
Are you sure it isn't a Kohlert? I had a Czech Kohlert tenor sax a couple of years ago. It was really terrible, though it had a nice nickel plated finish. Another advantage it had was that it was nearly unbreakable, I dropped it a couple of times, but not a scratch nor a dent. So if the sax is a Kohlert, you might not need a case... :-).
The price is very good if the sax is in decent shape. Cases are no problem, I had a gigbag specially made for my Buescher bass, helps a lot when travelling. Baritone mouthpieces can also work if you find the right one, for the moment I use a Berg Larsen.
Redards,
Tommie Naslund.
Stockholm, Sweden.
Author: Chip Owen
<cowen@centralnet.net>
Date: 12/3/96 10:04
PM
Subject: Re: Holert bass saxophone
Mike Mori writes:
> Does anyone know anything about old Holert bass saxophones. I saw one in the
> corner of a music store that is for sale. It's dated Dec. 1914 and does not
> come with a case nor a mouthpiece. The asking price is $2000, but that seems
> a little high to me. Any thoughts??
That Holert bass sax was probably a Kohlert. V. Kohlert & Sohnes of Graslitz, Czecheslovakia is best known in North America as a maker of bassoons. They were actually a very large maker of all kinds of woodwinds including a large volume of saxophones.
Chip Owen
Columbia City, IN
Date: 5 Dec 1996 17:14:36 -0000
From: "fghgfh
fghfgh" <oljare@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re:
Contrabass-L No. 61
Hi citizens of the global village!!!
My name is Mats Vljare,and i4m a baritonist/composer living in Eskilstuna,Sweden.
As a composer,i4ve written a short work for wind quintet,as well as music for baritone sax&vibraphone,and i4m currently working on music for guitar and a string quartet.That4s all.Bye.
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Thanks: good to have a name to go with the email address ;-)
joesax@earthlink.net said:
>Have a decent bass sax on hand?
>Grant Green
Hi Grant,
Thanks for message. We have Buescher Bass, NEWLY RElac'd, overhauled, new case.
$4,500.00
Gee, wonder if Joe reads these off the web archive ;-). Anyway, not far off what the average usenet price appears to be. Checking the classified ads in the back of the current Sax. J., there's an ad for a Buescher bass in original case for $3,500.
End Contrabass-L No. 62