Saxophone

The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
The saxophone is used in a wide range of musical styles including classical music, military bands, marching bands, jazz, and contemporary music. The saxophone is also used as a solo and melody instrument or as a member of a horn section in some styles of rock and roll and popular music.
The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s and was patented on 28 June 1846. Sax invented two groups of seven instruments each—one group contained instruments in C and F, and the other group contained instruments in B and E. The B and E instruments soon became dominant, and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. Instruments from the series pitched in C and F never gained a foothold and constituted only a small fraction of instruments made by Sax. High-pitch saxophones tuned sharper than the A = 440 Hz standard were produced into the early twentieth century for sonic qualities suited for outdoor use, but are not playable to modern tuning and are considered obsolete. Low-pitch saxophones are equivalent in tuning to modern instruments. C soprano and C melody saxophones were produced for the casual market as parlor instruments during the early twentieth century, and saxophones in F were introduced during the late 1920s but never gained acceptance.
The modern consists entirely of B and E instruments. The saxophones in widest use are the B soprano, E alto, B tenor, and E baritone. The E sopranino and B bass saxophone are typically used in larger saxophone choir settings, when available.
In the table below, consecutive members of each family are pitched an octave apart.

#	B family	E family
1	Soprillo	—
2	—	Sopranino
3	Soprano	—
4	—	Alto
5	Tenor	—
6	—	Baritone
7	Bass	—
8	—	Contrabass
9	Subcontrabass	—

Description

Construction

The pitch of a saxophone is controlled by opening or closing the tone holes along the body of the instrument to change the length of the vibrating air column. The tone holes are closed by leather pads connected to keys—most are operated by the player's fingers, but some are operated using the palm or the side of a finger. There is an octave key, which raises the pitch of the lower notes by one octave. The lowest note on most modern saxophones is the written B below middle C. Nearly all baritone saxophones are now constructed with an extra key to allow them to play low A, and a small number of altos with a low A key have been manufactured. The highest keyed note has traditionally been the F two and a half octaves above the low B, but many instruments now have an extra key for a high F, and some modern soprano saxophones even have a high G key. Notes above this are part of the altissimo register and require advanced embouchure techniques and fingering combinations.
Saxophone music is written in treble clef, appropriately transposed for each different type of instrument, and all saxophones use the same key arrangement and fingerings. Therefore, any written note corresponds to the same fingering on any saxophone, making it easier for players to switch instruments.
Alto and larger saxophones have a detachable curved neck at the top, and a U-shaped bend that turns the tubing upward as it approaches the bell. Soprano and sopranino saxophones are usually constructed without a detachable neck or a bow but some have a small detachable neck and some are shaped like an alto saxophone with a bow section. There are rare examples of alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones with mostly straight bodies. Baritone, bass, and contrabass saxophones have extra bends to accommodate the length of tubing. The fingering system for the saxophone is similar to the systems used for the oboe, the Boehm-system clarinet, and the flute.

Materials

From the earliest days of the saxophone the body and key cups have been made from sheet brass stock, which can be worked into complex shapes. The keywork is manufactured from other types of brass stock. King made saxophones with necks and bells of sterling silver from the 1930s into the early 1960s. Yanagisawa revived this idea in the 1980s and later introduced instruments entirely made of sterling silver. Keilwerth and P. Mauriat have used nickel silver, a copper-nickel-zinc alloy more commonly used for flutes, for the bodies of some saxophone models.
For visual and tonal effect, higher copper variants of brass are sometimes substituted for the more common "yellow brass" and "cartridge brass." Yanagisawa made its 902 and 992 series saxophones with the high copper alloy phosphor bronze to achieve a darker, more "vintage" tone than the brass 901 and 991 models.
Other materials are used for some mechanical parts and keywork. Buttons where the fingers contact the keys are usually made from plastic or mother of pearl. Rods, screw pins, and springs are usually made of blued or stainless steel. Mechanical buffers of felt, cork, leather, and various synthetic materials are used to minimize mechanical noise from key movement and to optimize the action of the keywork. Nickel silver is sometimes used for hinges for its advantages of mechanical durability, although the most common material for such applications has remained brass.
Manufacturers usually apply a finish to the surface of the instrument's body and keywork. The most common finish is a thin coating of clear or colored acrylic lacquer to protect the brass from oxidation and maintain a shiny appearance. Silver or gold plating are offered as options on some models. Some silver plated saxophones are also lacquered. Plating saxophones with gold is an expensive process because an underplating of silver is required for the gold to adhere to. Nickel plating has been used on the bodies of early budget model saxophones and is commonly used on keywork when a more durable finish is desired, mostly with student model saxophones. Chemical surface treatment of the base metal has come into use as an alternative to the lacquer and plating finishes in recent years.

Mouthpiece and reed

The saxophone uses a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Each size of saxophone uses a different size of reed and mouthpiece.
Most saxophonists use reeds made from Arundo donax cane, but since the middle of the twentieth century some have been made of fiberglass or other composite materials. Saxophone reeds are proportioned slightly differently from clarinet reeds, being wider for the same length. Commercial reeds vary in hardness and design, and single-reed players try different reeds to find those that suit their mouthpiece, embouchure, and playing style.
Mouthpiece design has a profound impact on tone. Different mouthpiece design characteristics and features tend to be favored for different styles. Early mouthpieces were designed to produce a "warm" and "round" sound for classical playing. Among classical mouthpieces, those with a concave chamber are truer to Adolphe Sax's original design; these provide a softer or less piercing tone favored by the Raschèr school of classical playing. Saxophonists who follow the French school of classical playing, influenced by Marcel Mule, generally use mouthpieces with smaller chambers for a somewhat "brighter" sound with relatively more upper harmonics. The use of the saxophone in dance orchestras and jazz ensembles from the 1920s onward placed emphasis on dynamic range and projection, leading to innovation in mouthpiece designs. At the opposite extreme from the classical mouthpieces are those with a small chamber and a low clearance above the reed between the tip and the chamber, called high baffle. These produce a bright sound with maximum projection, suitable for having a sound stand out among amplified instruments.
Mouthpieces come in a wide variety of materials including vulcanized rubber, plastic and metals like bronze or surgical steel. Less common materials that have been used include wood, glass, crystal, porcelain and bone. Recently, Delrin has been added to the stock of mouthpiece materials.
The effect of mouthpiece materials on tone of the saxophone has been the subject of much debate. According to Larry Teal, the mouthpiece material has little, if any, effect on the sound, and the physical dimensions give a mouthpiece its tone color. There are examples of "dark" sounding metal pieces and "bright" sounding hard rubber pieces. The extra bulk required near the tip with hard rubber affects mouth position and airflow characteristics.

History

Early development and adoption

The saxophone was designed around 1840 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, and clarinetist. Born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Before working on the saxophone, he made several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics and extending its lower range. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with these two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones.
As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and the agility of a woodwind. He wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers.
Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece and conical brass body. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, a 15-year patent for the instrument on 28 June 1846. The patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. A limited number of instruments in the series pitched in F and C were produced by Sax, but the series pitched in E and B quickly became the standard. All the instruments were given an initial written range from the B below the treble staff to the E one half-step below the third ledger line above staff, giving each saxophone a range of two and a half octaves. Sax's patent expired in 1866. Thereafter, numerous other instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design and keywork.
Sax's original keywork, which was based on the Triébert-system oboe for the left hand and the Boehm-system clarinet for the right, was simplistic and made certain legato passages and wide intervals extremely difficult to finger; that system was later improved with extra keys, linkage mechanisms, and alternate fingerings.
Early in the development of the saxophone the upper keyed range was extended to E, then to F above the staff; 1880s era sheet music for saxophone was written for the range of low B to F. In 1887 the Buffet-Crampon company obtained a patent for extending the bell and adding an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B. This extension is standard in modern designs, with the notable exception of baritone saxophones which have keys down to low A. The upper range to F remained the standard for nearly a century until a high F key became common on modern saxophones.
File:Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for the première of Rossini's Robert Bruce, Act III, Scene 3.jpg|thumb|In a rare early inclusion in an orchestral score, the saxophone was used in Gioacchino Rossini's Robert Bruce |alt=A painting of a stage setting based on the ramparts of Sterling Castle in the Late Middle Ages.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Sax's invention gained use in small classical ensembles, as a solo instrument, and in French and British military bands. Saxophone method books were published and saxophone instruction was offered at conservatories in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. By 1856, the French Garde Republicaine band was the largest ensemble of its time to prominently feature the instrument, using eight saxophones. The saxophone was used experimentally in orchestral scores, but never came into widespread use as an orchestral instrument. In 1853–54, the orchestra of Louis Antoine Jullien featured a soprano saxophone on a concert tour of the United States.
After an early period of interest and support from classical music communities in Europe, interest in the saxophone as a classical instrument waned in the late nineteenth century. Saxophone teaching at the Paris Conservatory was suspended from 1870 to 1900 and classical saxophone repertoire stagnated during that period. But it was during this same period that the saxophone began to be promoted in the United States, largely through the efforts of Patrick Gilmore, bandleader for the 22nd Regiment of the New York State National Guard, and Edward A. Lefebre, a Dutch émigré and saxophonist who had family business associations with Sax. Lefebre settled in New York in early 1872 after he arrived as a clarinetist with a British opera company. Gilmore organized the World Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival taking place in Boston that summer. The Garde Républicaine band performed, and Lefebre was a clarinetist with the Great Festival Orchestra for that event. In the fall of 1873, Gilmore was reorganizing the 22nd Regiment band under the influence of the Garde Republicaine band and recruited Lefebre, who had established a reputation in New York as a saxophonist over the previous year. Gilmore's band soon featured a soprano-alto-tenor-baritone saxophone section, which also performed as a quartet. The Gilmore-Lefebre association lasted until Gilmore's death in 1892, during which time Lefebre also performed in smaller ensembles of various sizes and instrumentation, and worked with composers to increase light classical and popular repertoire for saxophone.
Lefebre's later promotional efforts were very significant in broadening the adoption of the saxophone. Starting near the end of the 1880s, he consulted with the brass instrument manufacturer C.G. Conn to develop and start production of improved saxophones to replace the costly, scarce, and mechanically unreliable European instruments that were in the American market. The early 1890s saw regular production of saxophones commence at Conn and its offshoot Buescher Manufacturing Company, which dramatically increased the availability of saxophones in the US. Lefebre worked with the music publisher Carl Fischer to distribute his transcriptions, arrangements, and original works for saxophone, and worked with the Conn Conservatory to further saxophone pedagogy in the US. Lefebre's associations with Conn and Fischer lasted into the first decade of the twentieth century, and Fischer continued to publish new arrangements of Lefebre's works after his death.