Talk:Bass saxophone

Removal of photo

The photo just removed by User:TheParanoidOne was used with permission of Jay C. Easton, with the appropriate copyright tag and permission email given in the photo page. Please restore the photo promptly. Badagnani 04:35, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Photo restored. Badagnani 04:41, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Removal of text

This text, just removed, needs to be evaluated for relevance (and needs source): "Perhaps the greatest concentration of bass saxophones at a single event is the annual Mummer's Parade on New Years Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." Badagnani (talk) 02:13, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Bass saxophone to low A

Benedikt Eppelsheim has recently been making bass saxophones to low A (concert G). Should that be added in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.176.51.16 (talk) 02:53, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Moloko

I think the bass sax was used for Pure Pleasure Seeker. Faronnorth (talk) 00:53, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Fingerings

Are the fingerings the same on the bass sax for the alto sax/bari sax or is it like the tenor sax? 97.86.233.133 (talk) 00:46, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

See WP:NOTHOWTO. Wikipedia is not an instruction book. But, for the record, the fingerings on all of the saxophones are the same. This is true with almost every family of instruments (clarinets, flutes, etc.). - Special-T (talk) 13:15, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

Chant Sacré

In the "In classical music" section, the article claims that Berlioz' Chant Sacré was written for "two trumpets, one soprano saxhorn, two clarinets, and one bass saxophone." This is however without a source, and contradicts the instrumentation given on the French wikipedia page for Chant Sacré , which is "2 trumpets, 1 flugelhorn, 2 clarinets and 1 baritone saxophone," (which does also not have a citation). It would be great if someone could find an authorative citation to resolve this discrepancy once and for all! MegaBat (talk) 18:33, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

I don't know the piece so I might be completely wrong, but I just looked at some scores on IMSLP and the instrumentation was nothing like that. Special-T (talk) 18:54, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

Wow, yeah good spotting. The presumably definitive edition in vol 12a of the Bärenreiter New Edition of the Complete Works has it scored for full orchestra 2222-4030-4P-strings and choir, no saxophones in sight. That may have been because he re-orchestrated it later though, there's references to Sax playing a bass saxophone in something at the exhibition, so I'll go digging... — Jon (talk) 21:11, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

Cottrell in The Saxophone (2012, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 104) explains that while Berlioz wrote a lot about saxophones, supporting and praising Sax and his invention, he admitted in his later Memoirs to never scoring for them in any of his works. He arranged a short piece (probably the Chant sacré) as Hymne for "three saxhorns, clarinet, bass clarinet and saxophone", to demonstrate Sax's instruments and performed in his workshop on 3 February 1844, warmly reviewed by the critic Maurice Bourges (Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 4 February 1844, pp. 43–4 (IA)). Neither source says it was specifically a bass saxophone or confirms Sax himself was playing, although it seems likely Sax would have played a bass in 1844, pre-patent. — Jon (talk) 22:20, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

This seemingly dead-tree only book would also be a really good source, but it is unobtainium for me in NZ: Bryan Manning Kendall (2022). In Search of the Saxophone: its Origins and Functions. Hutchins: Kendallhouse Publishing. ISBN 979-8-218-07844-7. OCLC 1356801546. Wikidata Q133873478. — Jon (talk) 00:15, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

Another source: "Berlioz, Kastner, and Sax: Writing for and about the Early Saxhorn and Saxophone", by Stewart Carter. Quote (slightly condensed):

The Hymne mentioned was probably an arrangement of Berlioz’s Chant sacré, which was revised and orchestrated for a performance in Marseille in December 1843. As arranged for the concert in the Salle Herz, it is the only composition for which Berlioz ever provided a part for saxophone and one of a very few in which he used Sax’s brasses; unfortunately, the music does not survive. The various reports differ on the precise identification of the brass instruments, though there was at least one bugle à cylindres, which of course was a saxhorn in all but name.

Carter provides an arrangement created by himself which specifies "[bass] saxophone", but as he says, we don't know exactly what Berlioz intended. — Chrisahn (talk) 09:39, 25 June 2025 (UTC)