Here we go
Hi all,
I'm just starting this blog up. Hopefully I'll have things of interest to say. First off, let me introduce myself.
I'm a professional musician based in Montreal and have been playing the saxophone for over thirty years (doesn't seem so long). I also conduct a community symphony orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique de Laval) and write, arrange and orchestrate music. I have also had a special interest in investigating everything related to my first instrument, the saxophone.
I've been collecting information about performers and repertoire for the saxophone, especially in what is generally know as "classical music" (I hate that term, but it serves as a general description which most people understand). I'm not a very talkative sort, preferring listening to knowledgeable folks and learning. Hopefully I'll find enough to say which might interest other who have the same kind of taste in music.
I chose the title 'Sax's Dream' as a tribute to the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax.
For most people, the saxophone is "jazz". I have no problem with this, since so many great musicians have used the instrument in such creative fashion. But back in 1840, when Sax first introduced the saxophone, he wasn't thinking about jazz (which wouldn't exist for another 70 years) as the vehicle for his instrument. He was more interested in introducing a new, stonger voice to the woodwind section of the marching bands. He also wanted to use that voice in the midst of symphonic orchestra.
With this in mind, he created two sets of instruments, pitched to be inclusive to each of these mediums. A first set pitched in Bb and Eb (the saxophone's which most of us are familiar with today) for use in marching bands. Another set of instruments pitched in C anf F was to be used for symphonic orchestra work. It's from this set of instruments that we find the 'C-melody' sax which was very popular in the 1920s. It's actually the tenor sax in C from the orchestral family of instruments.
And so, history was made on February 3, 1844, when the saxophone was introduced to the general public in a performance written for the circumstance by Hector Berlioz: 'Chant sacré'. Written for several instruments either created or improved by Adolphe Sax, a clarinet, bass clarinet, bass sax, cornet, bugle and high trumpet, the saxophone part was performed by Adolphe Sax himself.
The rest, as they say is history. Which I'll certainly talk about in later blogs.
That's it for now. Talk to you soon.
Bernard Savoie
I'm just starting this blog up. Hopefully I'll have things of interest to say. First off, let me introduce myself.
I'm a professional musician based in Montreal and have been playing the saxophone for over thirty years (doesn't seem so long). I also conduct a community symphony orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique de Laval) and write, arrange and orchestrate music. I have also had a special interest in investigating everything related to my first instrument, the saxophone.
I've been collecting information about performers and repertoire for the saxophone, especially in what is generally know as "classical music" (I hate that term, but it serves as a general description which most people understand). I'm not a very talkative sort, preferring listening to knowledgeable folks and learning. Hopefully I'll find enough to say which might interest other who have the same kind of taste in music.
I chose the title 'Sax's Dream' as a tribute to the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax.
For most people, the saxophone is "jazz". I have no problem with this, since so many great musicians have used the instrument in such creative fashion. But back in 1840, when Sax first introduced the saxophone, he wasn't thinking about jazz (which wouldn't exist for another 70 years) as the vehicle for his instrument. He was more interested in introducing a new, stonger voice to the woodwind section of the marching bands. He also wanted to use that voice in the midst of symphonic orchestra.
With this in mind, he created two sets of instruments, pitched to be inclusive to each of these mediums. A first set pitched in Bb and Eb (the saxophone's which most of us are familiar with today) for use in marching bands. Another set of instruments pitched in C anf F was to be used for symphonic orchestra work. It's from this set of instruments that we find the 'C-melody' sax which was very popular in the 1920s. It's actually the tenor sax in C from the orchestral family of instruments.
And so, history was made on February 3, 1844, when the saxophone was introduced to the general public in a performance written for the circumstance by Hector Berlioz: 'Chant sacré'. Written for several instruments either created or improved by Adolphe Sax, a clarinet, bass clarinet, bass sax, cornet, bugle and high trumpet, the saxophone part was performed by Adolphe Sax himself.
The rest, as they say is history. Which I'll certainly talk about in later blogs.
That's it for now. Talk to you soon.
Bernard Savoie
posted by Bernard Savoie | 7:10 AM
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1 comments
