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| Contrabass-L: a list for discussion of contrabass *anything*|
|To subscribe, email gdgreen@crl.com with "subscribe contrabass"|
|in the subject line |
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's welcome two new subscribers today, Jeff La Marca and Fred Gablick. Sorry there weren't any digests over the weekend. Just wasn't enough message traffic to put one out.
BTW, the contra discography has now been launched. I haven't yet put in all the suggestions, but it is started, and is available on the web (linked to the Contrabass List page).
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 1996 17:21:58
From: fgablick@gnn.com (Fred Gablick)
Subject: subscribe to contrabass-l list
Dear Grant,
I e-mailed you awhile ago about an article about contrabass saxophones in Saxophone Journal, and truly appreciated your response. If you can't come up w/ the article, I'll get it to you. I still have no more info about the bass for sale, but I'm trying.
I'm not gonna get into all the details of my life, but I am a sax player with a distinct leaning towards the bottom end. I play semi-professionally around Pittsburgh, PA, mostly on tenor & bari. I play around with flute & recorder as well.
I work on pipe organs as a hobby. Man, if you want to be moved around a bit, stand at the top of a 32' reed while it's being played! I read something in one of your newsletters about organs, and I wanted to relay a couple things. There isn't a true 64' stop in the Woolsey Hall Skinner, it's a Resultant - 64' pitch created by beating the tonic of one 32' rank against the 5th of another. This is also done with 16' ranks to create a false 32' pulse. 32' CCCC beats 16 hz, 64' beats roughly 8 hz. The only 64' stop in the world is a full length reed in the Sydney Town Hall organ in Sydney, Austrailia. If you get a chance to visit a Skinner with a 32' Bombarde, check out the window in the block and watch the reed do its thing.
Ok, I talked more than I promised. Please put me on the list. I'm trying out a couple i-net providers, so I'll let you know if my e-mail address changes.
Fred
-- [ From: Mark Trinko * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
I'm kinda bummed. I posted a message in the beginning of this list about the Dec 26-31, 1996 Las Vegas Contrabassoon festival. I was sure that all of you would come runnin'. But none did.
You know, when someone does a musical thing it is always nice to have unusual things during that week.
Mark
From: Grant Green
To: Mark Trinko \ PRODIGY: (KUUP84A)
Subject: Re: Contrabass-L
Well, maybe we need to give it more time. The contra-L list is only about 18 subscribers now, and only a couple of them are contrabassoon players. If you'd like, I'll put mention of the festival on the web page, with a link to your email address: should at least increase the exposure. Also, I don't know if prodigy supports sig files, but you might like to mention the festival in your sig. Something like:
################################################################
Mark
Trinko KUUP84A@prodigy.com
Come to the CONTRABASSOON
FESTIVAL, Los Vegas, Dec. 26-31, 1996
Feel the Earth
Move!
################################################################
If prodigy doesn't support sig files, you can always design a sig in Notepad (or another text editor), and simply paste it onto the end of your email messages. (This is what I used to do before getting Eudora.)
I'm tempted to come myself, but can't convince my wife that we should forego all our usual family holiday activities during that week. If the festival were scheduled for sometime in summer (or practically anytime that wasn't a holiday), I'd have a much better chance of coming. Actually, it sounds like an ideal way to spend the holiday for me, but I'm kinda obligated to do family stuff during the holidays. I'd come by myself, but I'd end up a lot more "by myself" afterwards, if you know what I mean. My wife isn't very musically inclined, and isn't very enthusiastic about the sarrusophones, either.
I've learned not to even suggest going into a music store when she's with me: she's just not interested (I won't mention the times I've stood around in antique stores while she goes over every last saucer in a set of china...).
I still think the contra festival is a great idea, and hope to attend next year (if it is scheduled sometime outside of December). I think that it will grow each year until it becomes a major event. I can just imagine the airport, with several hundred people lugging huge instrument cases through airport security (no it isn't a bazooka!...). Some people won't come to the "grand opening" of an event, but will wait a round or two to make sure its worthwhile. The rest of us "early adopters" have all the fun from the beginning, and are old hands by the time the cautious majority ambles in.
> "You know, when someone does a musical thing it is always
> nice to have unusual things during that week."
I'm not sure what you mean here. ?
BTW, did you want this posted to the list? I wasn't sure, because it came to my office email address, and I do most of the list management through my ISP account (gdgreen@crl.com). Let me know if you want it on the list, and I'll put it on tomorrow's digest.
Grant
-- [ From: Mark Trinko * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
Yes, please put this on the list. By unusual things I mean "other than contrabassoon" and hopefully some exotic instruments that no one else has heard of much.
Thanks for your spport, help on your web page would be great too.
Mark, the Contrabassoon Festival is now mentioned at the top of my web site (well, just under the first graphic). The page appears to net about 350 hits per month, so with any luck you'll pick up a few more attendees.
Alert!!
Paul Cohen (whom you may have heard of, as columnist for the Saxophone Journal, or as the contrabass sarrusophone player on Paul Winter's CD "The Man Who Planted Trees") is selling off a few of his more esoteric instruments. Included in the list are an ophicleide (9 key), a contra ad anche (reed contrabass), and a Bb tenor rothophone (OK, not a contra instrument, but fascinating nonetheless). He posted a message in alt.music.saxophone, as follows:
>I'm moving to a new home, giving me room to display my
>collection of saxophones more visibly. Here are a few saxophones
>redundant to my collection that I discovered as I was cleaning
>out some deep saxophone closets. These are all for sale.
>Please e-mail if interested.
>
>Collectables:
>Buescher "Academy" alto -- #S9-452 --
>Conn C-melody -- #77825 -- silver
>Conn C-soprano -- #106928 -- silver
>Couesnon Saxie -- (c.1920) --
>Evette-Schaeffer Baritone -- #23610 -- silver
>Rothophone - Bb Tenor --
>Taragato -- conically bored -- wooden -- "soprano"
>Ophicleide (c. 1840s-50s) - engraving reads: "Courtois Neves Aine
> Brevette A Paris" (9 keys, 43 inches long)
>Contre-d'anche
>
>Playable, professional saxophones:
>Yanagasawa sopranino
>Buescher straight soprano -- #204452 --
>Martin alto -- "The Martin" -- #178742 -- (c.1950's) --
>Martin alto -- #94012 -- LP -- silver
>Selmer MK VI tenor -- #166504 (fabulous condition)
>Selmer baritone -- #194010 -- Mark VI -- Low A (fabulous condition)
>Selmer baritone -- #46367 -- Super-Balanced Action -- Low A (virtually
>mint condition)
His email address is Paulc135@concentric.net, if anyone's interested. I had contacted him before about his ophicleide, but the going rate for a good one is around US$3K (or so I hear), and I'm a bit "tapped out" at the moment (you can guess why).
The contra ad anche (literally "reed contrabass") is an interesting instrument. It's a doublereed horn, folded up like a sarrusophone (or contrabassoon), with a metal bore wider than the sarrusophone. I don't know if its wider than the sax bore or not (I suspect not). The tone holes on the 'ad anche are so large that opening a single pad provides sufficient venting for the note. The keys on the horn are arranged so that pressing a key opens the pad, and thus one plays it more like a keyboard than a wind instrument: you just press the one key that corresponds to the note you want. (I guess it must therefore have 12 keys.) The lowest note on the horn is the piano's lowest D. I have no idea what they sell for, but if you don't live near New Jersey, you'd better factor in shipping as well!
Grant
End Contrabass-L No. 14