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How low can you go?

21K views 63 replies 20 participants last post by  milandro 
#1 ·
I have been meaning to ask the SOTW community for a while to reflect on the why in the last few years there has been an incredible proliferation of very low sounding instruments some of which have surpassed the threshold of the audible frequencies.

This phenomenon is hardly limited to the world of saxophones and yes, we had contrabass saxophones and clarinets for a very long time but hyperbass flutes? Octobass stringed instruments?

Why is this? Yes, the saxophone family has also gone the other way and Benedikt Eppelsheim (who is responsible for a few low instruments too: two tubaxes, a contrabass, a bass and both a contrabass clarinet and a contra-bassoon ) added a piccolo saxophone or soprillo to the range of the saxophones.

But there are many other examples of incredibly low instruments...........feel free to add to the collection :)






 
#3 ·
I think the saddest clip was of (Sir) James Galway patiently waiting whilst the hypher-sub-unter-contra-bass :bluewink: flute was assembled, then not getting a sound out of it, apart from something sounding like polythene flapping in the breeze - which probably was polythene flapping in the breeze.

Probably a good thing, the sound of a jet passing overhead was a tad more musical than could have reasonably been expected from that IKEA reject waste disposal unit... :mrgreen:

( unkind ? moi ? )

Or maybe it was from one of the big Stanier saxes, where the player had to put his glasses on (for safety ?) before descending totally into the depths. :(
 
#7 ·
(IMO) Great Post. Maybe the body/mind responds to sound waves that are outside the ‘normal’ range thereby giving the listener something outside the ‘normal’ range of satisfaction. Can’t wait for the responses of SOTW members with low thinking thought waves (DDR member).
 
#21 ·
Now you have my interest :twisted:

But "narrow bore with alto saxophone mouthpiece" !!! An alto mouthpiece/reed is going to generate enough air to fill that beast ? Interesting... In true C-Saxophone spirit, I'd be tempted to try a tenor mouthpiece on it :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
 

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#25 ·
HA! yes it does...After thinking about it, in 5 years SOTW has helped me some. It got me into the whole vintage sax thing (Which cost me about 6 or 7 big ones) and I found a link to an altissimo fingering chart. the other 4,100 posts I made and the thousands I've read can at best qualify as entertainment....
 
#26 ·
Maybe this whole craze has begun for a couple of reasons I think. The first is the youth, I myself included, like more of a deep kind of sound nowadays is what I think. These kids and teens often listen to stuff with lots of bass, like dub step, hip hop, pop, etc. Also I think it might be easier to blow air through a large instrument than a small instrument. I will use two instruments as an example, the Soprillo (or Sopranissimo) saxophone and the Contrabass saxophone. With the Contrabass you got to have lots of air in your lungs to play those notes, but on the Soprillo your embouchure has to be really, I don't know, focused or something. This could cause your lips to give out easier. Although I have never played on either, this is just what I think. So if I'm wrong, feel free to make fun of me or something. And finally construction. While yes it doesn't require as much materials to build something small like the Soprillo but its more challenging to put together because its so small. If I'm wrong on this then again make fun of me or something to get it out of your system but this is what I think. Its hard to build something smaller, but probably a lot easier to build something bigger. Just my thoughts on how this whole thing began.
 
#29 ·
No extreme instrument is easy to play.

I have briefly played the soprillo as I have played on a contrabass and sub contrabass, none of which struck me as particularly easy to play or, by the same token, as impossible to be played. Like all things you need to lean to do that.

The easiest extreme saxophone to play that I've tried was a rather more conservative (compared to these beasts) Tubax.

My qualm about these ultra-low musical instruments is that they are " popular" more than anything else because of their extremeness not so much because they have a musical function.

In other words, in a world where show is everything you produce an instrument where the visual impact is way higher than its aural one, especially when playing notes that are so low (in the lowest part of any of these instruments) that are next to impossible for the player to even play " in tune" because all the player hears is a low farting sound and, at the very most (the lowest nots) can be used rhythmically but not melodically.



 
#40 ·
...
In other words, in a world where show is everything you produce an instrument where the visual impact is way higher than its aural one...
The "paperclip clarinet" (contrabass) is very appealing to me visually. It's compact design was probably practical in origin rather than sensational. Sadly, it doesn't sound very good to me in the lower registers.
 
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