Subcontrabass 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.

Related Topics:
Saxophone - Adolphe Sax - Pipe organ - Octave - Bass saxophone - Tenor saxophone

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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.

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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.

Related Topics:
Tubax - 1999 - Bass saxophone - Contrabass saxophone

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