Contrabass Digest |
| To subscribe or unsubscribe, email gdgreen@contrabass.com |
From: LeliaLoban
Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:37:40 EDT
Subject: Clarinet/Sax nomenclature (was: [CB] Clarintet/Sax nomenclature)
John Kilpatrick wrote,
>A Bb clarinet really ought to be called an
>Eb clarinet, and an Eb an Ab (or EEb/AAb- I'm
>confusing myself now).
Maybe I'm misreading the above comment, but if it's meant literally, it is a
bit confused. The Bb or Eb in the name has nothing to do with the range
(highest or lowest notes available) or the register (clarion, chalumeau,
altissimo) of the instrument. These are transposing instruments. The Bb or
Eb refers to the pitch, relative to C-pitched instruments. For instance,
when you read music and play the *written* note C on a Bb clarinet, the note
that *sounds* isn't the orchestra's or piano's C. It's their Bb, so it's a
Bb instrument. When you play a written note C on an Eb instrument, it sounds
the orchestra's or piano's Eb. A written C played on a horn in F sounds the
orchestra's F. That's why the Bb soprano clarinet and Bb bass clarinet can
have different ranges, even though it's correct to call both of them Bb
instruments.
Lelia Loban
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 04 May 2002 23:02:10 -0700
From: Craig Durham
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
Now that's a tuba! Good thing it's not a woodwind, else it would be a
sub-double-contra-contrabass - or maybe an alto.
Has there ever been a soprano tuba? Or a bass piccolo? I know there's
a piccolo (string) bass...
Craig
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 05 May 2002 13:34:32 +0200
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
From: Klaus Bjerre
on 05.05.02 8:02, Craig Durham wrote:
> Has there ever been a soprano tuba?
Yes!
The Tokyo Tuba Guild had one made for a concert a decade or more ago.
Fred Mills, formerly of Canadian Brass, is reported to have one, that he
used in the quintet.
Both basically are re-wrapped flugelhorns.
Klaus
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "zhenya"
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 08:40:32 -0400
That photo is so funny. It is very nice--the large tuba. Thanks.
Z
reference:
http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/hoffnung/biog6.htm
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 12:38:12 -0400
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
From: Michael C Grogg
> Has there ever been a soprano tuba?
Yes,
Known as the Fluba. It is a re-wraped flugle horn. Tony Clements out in
San Diego has been the progentor of this project. A number of them are
used each year in the annual Tuba bash he puts on at Christmas time ( not
to be confused with TubaChristmas, which is a copyrighted name owned by
someone else in the tuba community) .
Tuba players also classify euphoniums and baritone horns as Tenor Tubas,
and Eb alto horns as Alto Tubas, so the Fluba is the soprano. I suppose
if you wanted to waste some time and money, you could re-wrap an Eb
cornet and make a Sopranino Tuba. Just a thought.
Michael Grogg
________________________________________________________________
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jay and Adrienne Easton"
Subject: Re: [CB] contrawhat?
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 12:16:14 -0700
> From: Simon Bull <
> Reply-To: contra-new2@contrabass.com
>
> Nice to see that Jay Easton is in direct contact with Eppelsheim. This seems
> to me to be a match made in heaven; on the one hand, a guy buried away in
> his workshop, designing and building horns the like of which the world has
> never seen, and he doesn't even know if the world wants, and on the other
> hand, and on the other side of the world, a guy who can't wait to get his
> hands on them. Should be fun...
> >
That seems to be a fair characterization...
;-)
Thanks for putting us in touch!
We've been swapping faxes, and there may be some SERIOUS low notes in my
future...
More news as things develop. And of course, I'm on the Soprillo list...
Benedikt seems to be a very nice guy who happens to be an acoustics genius
who is deeply dedicated to the art of making really neat instruments that
noone else has built.
> A contrabass saxophone, to use the clarinet terminology, has, to my
> knowledge, never been built. Never mind a "subcontrabass". And even if it
> had, how would you play it? And who's car would you drive to the gig in?
>
On the other hand, an EEb contrabass sax has the same lowest note (concert
Db) as the standard Bb contrabass clarinet. That should make things a
little simpler for composers who are more likely to be thinking in terms of
concert pitch anyway- same low note, same name. (Of course, it doesn't work
for bass, alto, soprano clarinets/saxes...)
The Harvard dictionary of music says that "contrabass" usually refers to the
lowest member of an instrumental family, but that there are some
subcontrabass instruments. With the semi-mythical Leblanc earthshakers, they
were each prefixed with "octo-" to indicate that extra octave of seismic
potential. So if the BBb contrabass clarinet had an equivalent BBBb
octocontrabass below it, then by the same reasoning, a BBBb sax below the
EEb contra COULD in theory be called an octobass saxophone, because it's an
octave below the BBb bass sax (and because it would take a large octopus to
reach all of the keys.) I, however, do like the term subcontrabass
saxophone, simply because it tells anyone who hears the name that this
instrument is below the contrabass (and that it is roughly the size of a
typical nuclear-powered sub.) At any rate, they're all below "C" level...
Adolphe sax originlly refered to the EEb monster as contrabass, and the BBBb
below it as "saxophone bourdon", after the low organ stop. I the original
patent sketch, both of these, interestingly enough, have a wraparound design
similar to the Tubax (or sarrusophone,) but with a larger bore. I've never
seen any indication that he built either of them, though.
Or we can just be creative- Terje, didn't you make an
octocontracombinaltobasso clarinet?
Harry Partch had his monster Marimba Eroica. Even Dr. Seuss came up with a
Great Big ElectroWhoCardioFlook...
:-)
Jay
www.jayeaston.com
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 05 May 2002 12:17:45 -0700
From: David Richoux
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
Michael C Grogg wrote:
> > Has there ever been a soprano tuba?
>
> Yes,
>
> Known as the Fluba. It is a re-wraped flugle horn. Tony Clements out in
> San Diego
wrong end of the state - it is San Jose (near San Francisco)
Dave Richoux
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 18:05:58 -0400
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
From: Michael C Grogg
> > > Has there ever been a soprano tuba?
> >
> > Yes,
> >
> > Known as the Fluba. It is a re-wraped flugle horn. Tony Clements
> out in
> > San Diego
>
> wrong end of the state - it is San Jose (near San Francisco)
Okay, one of the San's at least. I have been to three or four of them,
hard to remember which.
MG
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 05 May 2002 15:47:37 -0700
From: Craig Durham
Subject: Re: [CB] Gerard Hoffnung
Michael C Grogg wrote:
>Tuba players also classify euphoniums and baritone horns as Tenor Tubas,
>and Eb alto horns as Alto Tubas, so the Fluba is the soprano. I suppose
>if you wanted to waste some time and money, you could re-wrap an Eb
>cornet and make a Sopranino Tuba. Just a thought.
>
So brasswinds *are* also in the nomenclature blender. Not quite as
confusing as woodwinds, though. I could re-introduce organ rank /
speaking length to the mix, but I'm not going to go there again. :-)
Craig
***End of Contrabass Digest***
Next Digest ->
Previous Digest <-
Index
Top