19Th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS on ACOUSTICS MADRID, 2-7 SEPTEMBER 2007
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19th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS MADRID, 2-7 SEPTEMBER 2007 Acoustic measurements along the history of saxophone: from Adolphe Sax to vintage instruments. PACS: 43.75. Vincent Gibiat1 Hamid Louaked2 Jerôme Selmer2 1University Paul Sabatier PHASE 118 route de Narbonne 31062 TOULOUSE Cedex 9 France ; [email protected] 2Henri Selmer Paris 18 rue de la fontaine au roi 75011 PARIS France; [email protected] ABSTRACT A complete collection of alto saxophones belonging to the successors of Adolphe Sax factory (Henri Selmer Paris) beginning with Adolphe Sax instruments (1856) followed by all the different models produced all along the twentieth century has been acoustically studied. Model 22, 26, 28, Radio improved, Balanced Action as well as the mythic Mark VI or unique instruments based on a factory model and realised for a special event have been studied to follow the evolution of what is both an historic instrument and a popular one. As these instruments are all in playable conditions impedance measurements on all the possible fingerings have been obtained. Sound recordings have also been realised on chromatic scales and short musical excerpts. We present the synthetic results obtained that show the continuity between Adolphe Sax production and the earlier Selmer Instruments, then the quality and homogeneity gap between some different models. Through the evolution the musician demands on sound quality appear clearly. These historic instruments have also been compared to the most recent models showing an evolution and a preservation of the historic sound that is certainly not finished. INTRODUCTION Both ancient and popular the saxophone has a peculiar place in music history. Invented in the middle of the nineteenth century (around 1840) by Adolphe Sax to replace bassoons in military bands, it has been patented in 1846, four years after its first public presentation and two years after the warmful report that Berlioz gave in “le journal des débats” about its sound quality in 1844. Designed as a military instrument (a whole family in B flat and E flat) and in addition as a possible member of the classical orchestra with another complete family in C and F, it began its musical history with great success ; for example Wagner suggested its use to replace horns in Tannhauser or to use it in the scene orchestra in Tristan. It became also rapidly a very popular instrument in jazz bands, essentially through the Eb and Bb family but also with the Tenor in C only survivor of the “classic family”. Oscillating between classical orchestra with music from Berg to Berio and popular bands, in around one and half century the instrument developed the same mythology than older instruments. The end of the twentieth century have seen incredible debates about the unbelievable sound of “vintage” saxophones, or about the incomparable sound of mythic Mark VI or Balanced Action built by Selmer just before and after the second world war. As Henri Selmer Paris company is de facto the heir of Adolphe Sax factory they have bought in 1928, there is a continuity of fabrication from Adolphe Sax, Adolphe Sax fils and Henri Selmer Paris, that asks for a complete study, acoustical, ergonomical and musical. The present work deals only with an acoustical study of Alto saxophones as Henri Selmer Paris owns a complete collection of playable instruments that begins with an Adolphe Sax instrument (1856) and indeed ends with the newest factory models. As acoustic input impedance measurement is a regular research tool of the company, it has been possible to have an objective characterisation of the instrument, as well to record short musical excerpts played by musicians. This study reports the preliminary work that has been done in the factory, it will go on with the tenor the soprano and the other instruments of the collection. The whole collection of instruments is visible on Henri Selmer web site [1] In the first part of this paper the collection will be presented, then we briefly report some particular impedance measurements extracted from the whole fingerings measured (around 40 fingerings for each saxophone) to do a comparison with the selected musical examples where it is easy to detect some specific features. Finally we will compare the acoustical analysis on some examples. I THE SELMER ALTO COLLECTION Beginning with an alto saxophone from Adolphe Sax factory (circa 1856) the alto collection also comprise an instrument made by Adolphe Sax “fils”, a saxophone said as it is written on the bell to have been assembled by Selmer. Some of the last instruments produced by Adolphe Sax workshop were made by Henri Selmer who had commercial contacts with Sax family. A saxophone Selmer model 22, the first produced by Selmer on his name, is followed by a model 26, the first Selmer “Sax Heritage” as it corresponds roughly to the date of acquisition of Sax factory by Selmer. An alto model 28, said Cigar Cutter because of the particular design of the octave key mechanism, a radio-improved (1934), a balanced action of 1936, are then some of the first mythic instruments always searched for and played by many saxophonists for “their sound”. The later (1936) has a design very near of what are known as modern instruments. The super action of 1948 is one of the testimony of this heritage just after the second world war. It has been rapidly replaced by the mythic Mark VI of 1954, a saxophone that is always widely used all around the world and whose price is often higher than those of modern instruments. With this instrument we are going from history to modern fabrication. The Mark VII, the super action 80, the super action 80 série II the most recent serie III and the revival reference inspired from the mark VI will end our set. This incredible collection of historical instruments is only a selection from the complete collection of saxophones that Henri Selmer Paris has constituted all along the years, with rare instruments of all possible sizes from the bass in Bb to the sopranino in Eb, beginning with exceptional instruments by Adolphe Sax himself. As Alto saxophones in E flat collection presents all the models that have been built between 1856 and today, with at least one of each in playable conditions it has been decided to realised both an objective exploration through impedance measurements for all the fingerings and a subjective experiment with the recording of a chromatic scale and small musical excerpts played by two musicians of different schools. The first was the assistant professor in Paris National Superior Conservatory –CNSMDP- (Christophe Bois) who played excerpts from Bizet Opera “l’Arlésienne” -1872- and from Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky “Pictures of an exhibition- il viecho castello” -1922- both well known solo for alto saxophone. These short solos have the advantage to have been at the saxophone repertoire all along the history of our sample instruments. As the saxophone heritage and the vintage search for some of the instruments under study are coming from jazz music, we also asked Pierrick Piedron who belongs to the staff of musicians that help Henri Selmer Paris to define the future instruments and is a well known jazz alto saxophonist playing “vintage” instruments to blow the instruments only replacing the classic solos by a short ballad. The question that arise immediately from such a confrontation is that of the sound, immediately followed by that of the differences, in playability, pitch, homogeneity etc. In other word what is making them so fascinating? With saxophone we are in a very different situation than that is known for violins, where the instruments have been modified to follow the evolution of the played music. We are also in a very different situation than that has aroused with barock revival where original instruments are rare and often not playable, very different from modern ones replaced by replicas and needing another kind of playing. During the short history of saxophone, only a few has changed between the Adolphe Sax N°15511 instrument and the Mark VI of figure 1. After a few minutes any trained saxophonist is able to played both “horns” as it has been a modern instrument. As we would like to study only the different saxophones and because mouthpiece replicas or original mouthpieces (and reed) are not common, all the instruments have been blown with the same “classic” mouthpiece. We are perfectly aware that it is a drawback of our study but as the mouthpieces are replaced by a volume in impedance measurement it would have been very difficult to extract information from the recorded sounds to correlate them with impedance. In the other hand these instruments are played today, and have been played all along the years with very different mouthpieces. As the present work is obviously a preliminary one where we are trying to fix the methodology to study such a rich ensemble. We will focus here on some particular features that are evident both on the sound of the instruments, on the visible modifications and on the impedance curves giving us a set of results where objective and subjective observations converges. 2 19th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS – ICA2007MADRID Our first surprise has been the weight of the instruments; the older the lighter, but the most important is that, excepted two octave keys and the absence of the low Bb (written note as it will be the case all along the text for fingerings and keys) on the Adolphe Sax instrument, the others are incredibly similar. The saxophone was only subjected to minor external changes during the last 150 years, but as we will see later these minor external changes appear to have had important consequences for its sound.