A B-flat subcontrabass tubax (right), the closest extant instrument to a subcontrabass saxophone. On the left, for comparison, is a tenor saxophone.
The Subcontrabass saxophone is a type of saxophone that Adolphe Sax had patented and planned to build but which was never finished. Sax called this projected instrument saxophone bourdon (named after the lowest stop on the pipe organ). It would have been tuned in B-flat, one octave below the bass saxophone and two octaves below the tenor saxophone. Image File history File links A B-flat subcontrabass tubax. ... Image File history File links A B-flat subcontrabass tubax. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ... Life-size statue of Adolphe Sax outside his birthplace in Dinant, Belgium. ... This article is part of the Pipe Organ Refactor Project. ... In music, an octave (sometimes abbreviated 8ve or 8va) is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double the frequency. ... The bass saxophone (or bass sax for short) is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family. ... A Yanagisawa tenor sax. ...
Although there are several images around the Internet showing instruments purported to be subcontrabass saxophones, none depicts a genuine, playable instrument; the gigantic instruments seem to have been built solely for show. Although the smaller of the two (constructed in the mid-1960s) was able to produce musical tones (with assistants opening and closing its pads due to the instrument's lack of keywork), witnesses have stated that it was incapable of playing even a simple scale.
The instrument closest to a (hypothetical) subcontrabass saxophone is the tubax, which was developed in 1999 by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim and which is available in the same tonal range as the subcontrabass saxophone would have been. Models are available in C and B-flat (the B-flat being the standard subcontrabass model, one octave below the bass saxophone, or a fourth below the contrabass saxophone. A B-flat subcontrabass tubax (right). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) is a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Benedikt Eppelsheim is a world-renowned German manufacturer of high- and low-voiced saxophones, the soprillo and tubax, which are available exclusively from him. ... The bass saxophone (or bass sax for short) is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family. ... An EEb contrabass saxophone The contrabass saxophone is the second largest member of the saxophone family (the largest being the triple B-flat subcontrabass tubax, although the tubax is not technically a member of the saxophone family due to its narrower bore). ...
The saxophone was created in the early 1840s by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian-born instrument-maker and clarinetist working in Paris, and was first officially revealed to the public in the patent of 1846 (which was granted to him on May 17).
The instrument, which combined a saxophone bore and keys with a bell shaped similar to that of a heckelphone, was intended to imitate the timbre of the English horn and was produced only between 1928 and 1930.
Virtually all saxophones are transposing instruments: Sopranino, alto and baritone saxophones are in the key of E-flat, and soprano, tenor and bass saxophones are in the key of B-flat.
Alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a family of woodwind instruments invented by Adolphe Sax.
Baritone saxophone players in marching groups often use a special harness that distributes the weight of the instrument onto the player's back instead of around his neck, as is the conventional way of supporting the instrument.
The baritone saxophone, however, is the only member of the saxophone family which often possesses a "low A" key (sounding concert C, the same pitch as the lowest note on the cello), whereas most other saxophones descend only to a fingered B-flat (sounding pitch depending on the key of the particular instrument).
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