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Saxhorn?

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:08 pm
by Minkrott
Is this a saxhorn? It is missing the leadpipe and mouthpiece. 5 keys for each hand.

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/47942588" target="_blank" target="_blank

Re: Saxhorn?

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:26 pm
by Tabert
Looks like a sarrusophone to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarrusophone

Re: Saxhorn?

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:28 pm
by Donn
Close! See if you don't agree with me that it's a Reed Contrabass.
Image
Image

They're quite unusual, so obscure that we don't have much to go on as to how they sound - or didn't, the last time I looked, but now there's this bravura performance online, Reed Contrabass with Recorder Ensemble on Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing.

I had a chance to play a contrabass sarrusophone very briefly years ago, or try to play it anyway - it struck me as a pretty feeble contrabass. In the semi-famous Sidney Bechet contrabass sarrusophone solo, he sounds like he jumped right on the mike. The reed contrabass has a much wider bore, which I guess gives it more volume - enough to keep up with recorders, anyway - but at an obvious sacrifice in tone quality and pitch stability, so you have to practice like crazy, just to sound as good as a reed contrabass can sound, which is not very good. And I imagine you have to manufacture your own reeds.

Clarence Williams' 1924 record, Mandy, Make Up Your Mind, with Sidney Bechet on contrabass sarrusophone.

Note that the instrument for sale apparently is missing its "bocal", and it's going to be awfully hard to find a replacement! That's the equivalent to the "neck" of a saxophone, and of course its exact dimensions are quite critical to the sound quality, such as it may be.

Re: Saxhorn?

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:22 am
by Minkrott
Yes Donn, I believe you are right. Here is more detail and pictures.

http://www.contrabass.com/pages/anche.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

Re: Saxhorn?

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:12 am
by Donn
Saxhorn ensemble Opus 333 on Langsamer Satz, Anton Webern - all, I think, the same bass (?) size (9 foot), and I get the impression that these days that's the family member that has really survived under that name. I think most of the conical brass commonly found under other names (e.g., tuba) depart enough from the proportions that they couldn't really be called saxhorns, but the alto horn might qualify.

Re: Saxhorn?

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:11 pm
by Minkrott
Currently over $1900. Ends in 4 hours.