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SAXOPHONE (Ger. Saxophon, Ital. sasso...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 274 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SAXOPHONE (Ger. Saxophon, Ital. sassofone) , a See also:modern hybrid musical See also:instrument invented by Adolphe See also:Sax, having the See also:clarinet See also:mouthpiece with single See also:reed applied to a conical See also:brass See also:tube. In See also:general See also:appearance the saxophone resembles the See also:bass clarinet, but the tube of the latter is cylindrical and of See also:wood; both See also:instruments are doubled up near the See also:bell, which is shaped somewhat like the See also:flower of the See also:gloxinia. The mouthpiece in both is fixed to a See also:serpentine tube at right angles to the See also:main See also:bore. On the saxophone, owing to its conical bore, the See also:production of See also:sound materially differs from that of the clarinet, and resembles that of the See also:oboe. The reed mouthpiece in See also:combination with a conical tube allows the performer to give the See also:ordinary See also:harmonic See also:series unbroken, which means in practice that the See also:octave or second member of the harmonic series is first overblown when the pressure of the breath and the tension of the lips on the reed are proportionally increased. The saxophone is there-fore one of the class known as octave instruments. The fundamental See also:note given out by the tube when the lateral holes are closed is that of an open See also:organ See also:pipe of the same length, whereas when, as in the clarinet See also:family, the reed mouthpiece is combined with a cylindrical bore, the tube behaves as though it were closed at one end, and its notes are an octave See also:lower in See also:pitch. Hence the bass'clarinet to give the same note as a bass saxophone would need to be only See also:half as See also:long. The closed pipe, moreover, can only overblow the uneven See also:numbers of the harmonic series, and therefore first gives the 12th instead of the octave, which necessitates an entirely different arrangement of holes and keys and a different See also:scheme of fingering. The bore of the saxophone is large, and there are from 18 to 20 keys covering holes of large See also:diameter to produce the fundamental See also:scale. The first 15 semitones are obtained by opening successive keys, the See also:rest of the See also:compass by means of octave keys enabling th'e performer to —_ sound the harmonic octave of the funda- See also:mental scale.

The compass of the various = saxophones extends over 2 octaves and a fifth with See also:

chromatic intervals, being one octave less than the clarinet. The See also:complete family consists of the accompanying members. The See also:treble clef is used in notation., and all saxophones are transposing instruments, the See also:music being written in a higher See also:key, according to the difference in pitch between the fundamental note of the instrument and the See also:standard C of the notation. The keys given above are of the orchestral saxophones; the instruments used in military bands are a See also:tone lower. The quality of tone of this family of instruments is inferior to that of the clarinets and has See also:affinities with that of the See also:harmonium. According to See also:Berlioz it has vague analogies with the timbre of 'cello, clarinet and See also:cor anglais,with, how-ever, a brazen tinge. To a See also:clock-maker of See also:Lisieux named Desfontenelles, who made a clarinet with a conical bore and an upturned bell in 1807, is due the combination of single reed mouthpiece with a conical tube. In 1840 Adolphe Sax, in trying to produce a clarinet that would overblow an octave like the See also:flute and oboe, in-vented the saxophone, which at once leapt into popularity in See also:France and See also:Belgium, where the See also:alto, See also:tenor and baryton have super- seded & Co., Ltd.) seded the See also:bassoon in almost all (Besson military bands. Many modern See also:French composers, See also:Meyerbeer, See also:Massenet, Ambroise See also:Thomas and others, have scored for it in their operas. Kastner introduced it into the See also:orchestra in See also:Paris in 1844 in Le Dernier Roi de Judo. The saxophone has been adopted in See also:England at the Royal Military School of Music at See also:Kneller See also:Hall. (K.

End of Article: SAXOPHONE (Ger. Saxophon, Ital. sassofone)

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