Dictionary of Music - Birding America

saxophone 363ferent sizes of saxhorn. This dictionary follows thecommon American practice of confining the name“flugelhorn” to the soprano instrument pitched in Cor B-flat (see FLUGELHORN). Other variants are:tenor horn for the tenor saxhorn (Sax’s saxhornbaryton); euphonium for the baritone saxhorn (Sax’ssaxhorn basse); bass tuba for the bass saxhorn(Sax’s saxhorn contrebasse); and BB-flat bass forthe contrabass (double-bass) saxhorn (Sax’s saxhornbourdon).saxophone (sak′sə fōn). A wind instrumentinvented c. 1840 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrumentmaker, which combines features of the oboeand clarinet. Like the clarinet, the saxophone has abeaklike mouthpiece to which a single reed isattached. Like the oboe, it has a conical bore (coneshapedinside), a flared bell, and a similar arrangementof keys. Sax originally built the instrument infourteen sizes, one group of seven, keyed in E-flatand B-flat, for military bands, and another group offig. 204 p/ufrom p. 379seven, keyed in F and C, for orchestras. All but thetwo smallest in each group were built with the tubebent back, forming a curved bell, and were fittedwith a crook to make the mouthpiece easier toreach. Today only the instruments in E-flat and B-flat are commonly built, the most popular sizesbeing the E-flat alto, the B-flat tenor (shown in theillustration), and the E-flat baritone. Each has arange of about two and one-half octaves. The saxophonesare TRANSPOSING INSTRUMENTS, their musicbeing written in a different key from their actualsound (see the example below).fig. 205 p/u from p. 379The saxophone has been used principally inbands and jazz ensembles, although some composers,especially in France, have occasionally usedit in orchestral scores. Outstanding compositions forsaxophone (or with important saxophone parts),most of them for the E-flat alto saxophone, are:Debussy, Rapsodie for saxophone and piano (alsoarranged for saxophone and orchestra); Webern,Quartet for saxophone, clarinet, violin, and piano,op 22; Ibert, Concertino da camera for saxophoneand orchestra (1935); Glazunov, Concerto for saxophone(1936); Elliott Carter, Suite for quartet of altosaxophones (1939); Paul Creston, Sonata for saxophoneand piano, op. 19 (1939), and Concerto forsaxophone (1944); Villa-Lobos, Fantasia for saxophoneand orchestra (1948); Donald Martino, SaxophoneConcerto (1987); John Harbison, San Antonio(1995); and Philip Glass, Concerto for SaxophoneQuartet and Orchestra (1995).The saxophone was added to the jazz bandsometime around 1920 (see JAZZ) and soon becameone of its most important instruments. A big band,with ten to twenty players, would include anywherefrom three to six saxophones (though occasionallyone of the saxophonists might switch to clarinet).Their main role at first was to provide a soft, steadybackground of chords for the melody, played bytrumpet, trombone, or clarinet. Later, with the emergenceof outstanding saxophonists, the instrumentwas also used as a melody instrument. Most jazzartists have preferred the tenor saxophone, amongthem such virtuosos as John Coltrane, Lester Young,Coleman Hawkins, Bud Freeman, and Stan Getz.Exceptions are Charlie “Bird” Parker, who playedalto saxophone, as did Ornette Coleman; SidneyBechet, a virtuoso on the difficult soprano saxophone;and Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophone.Often abbreviated sax.