Sax on the Web Forum banner

F-bari sax

10K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Gene 
#1 ·
Has anyone seen one of these?
 
#3 ·
Jay is incorrect on a couple of things.

I used to have that picture on my website. Here's the text:

Both pics are from French language sites. The first is from one of the several Early Wind Instruments sites (this mirror happens to have some English script -- and mis-dates the horn) and the second is from Clarinettes & Saxophones.

A. Sax produced the first saxophone in about 1843: a C bass in the shape of an ophicleide, as the original patent drawings show. Most of the original Sax baris were also cuved instruments, but that seems to have gone away by the time Sax was into full production. I'm gonna let SAXTEK take it from here:

"That baritone picture was originally published in Saxophone, Erfindung und Entwicklung einer Musikinstrumenten Familie und ihre bedeutenden Hersteller (whew!) by Gunter Dullat. The book is not entirely accurate, but since Dullat actually owns the horn, I'm sure he has at least correctly identified the key in which it is pitched. It is the only baritone in F that I know of that still exists, made by 'PELISSON FRERES & Cie., SYSTEME GEORGE BREVETE S.G.D.G.' It was made around 1900, and even though it's not that old, I sure wish I could find one."
a. The owner of this horn has some sort of disease or sickness that has rendered him unable to respond to e-mail for the past three years (if I send him an e-mail, his father responds -- and other posters to his website have gotten the same).

b. Paul Cohen disputes that this is an F baritone and thinks it's probably an Eb high pitch horn (based on both his and my experience that all the other F baris out there are Eb HP horns and are generally older Evette & Schaeffer horns), that's why we've been trying to contact the owner.
 
#4 ·
Pete,
At the height of my collection craze, I looked into an F baritone and found one in France, although it was not like the picture in your link.
The guy wanted 7K for it, which I of course, was not about to pay for a basically unusualble instrument.
Do you suppose this was in fact a high pitch Eb horn?
 
#5 ·
Almost definitely. I've heard of people modifying mouthpieces, necks, etc. to make the horn play "in tune" as an F instrument. I'd assume that there's a theoretical possiblity that if you do modify a neck, mouthpiece, and apply cork the inside of the toneholes on a HP Eb horn, you could get pretty close to an F bari.

I guess that's a project for someone with an HP horn hanging on a wall ...

Now, like the A/D/Ab/G sopranos and/or sopraninos that are reputed to be out there, there is a possibility that these horns exist as a prototype out there somewhere, but no one has been able to demonstrate that there's a production-model F bari.

Anyhow, we've got experts for and against calling the horn an F instrument. I wanna talk to the owner to make sure.
 
#7 ·
David Schottle said:
I have personally seen one. No, it is not high pitched.
The gentleman lives in the Chicago area and usesit often in a quartet setting. All C and F saxes.
I have seen this instrument and had conversations and correspondence with the owner. It is a high pitch Eb Evette Schaeffer modified to approximate an F instrument. Read my article in the Saxophone Journal some years ago about this instrument and F baritones in general.
Paul Cohen
 
#8 ·
For those who don't know him... Paul Cohen is one of the top experts in vintage saxophones, and has a quite extensive collection. He has a long running column in Saxophone Journal on vintage saxes. His three part series from Bruce Vermazen on the Six Brown Brothers led me to doing a series of arrangements from tapes of their recordings (supplied by Bruce).

If an F bari truly existed, I would expect to find one in Paul's collection.

Unfortunately, I missed meeting him (was way out of town) on his most recent trip to New Orleans. He is a most outstanding player, too.

Paul Cohen has To The Fore Publishing, where you can order sax solos, quartet, ensemble, and other sax music.
 
#10 ·
f-bari?

I sent out a bunch of pictures to members on this sax here are some more details Evette& Schaeffer Anc. Buffet-Crampon & Cic Brevetis s.g.d.g. 18&20 Passage du gd Cerf Paris 7098. If anyone knows anything about this sax especially its value let me know thanks for your time.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top