[pdxdoug]

It always amuses me to read about manufacturers making custom instruments at the extremities of the standard saxophone range. Sopraninos and soprillos on one end and contrabass and tubaxes on the other end seem to me like nothing more than eccentric curiosities.

I have always been intrigued by the possibility of a instrument with range midway between tenor and baritone saxes. A mezzo-baritone would I think be possible in the key of F. I imagine it being like a baritone with an expanded upper register or a tenor with a rich deeper lower register. Maybe I’m the only one who has ever conceived of such a hybrid horn. But when I think of the workshops laboring away on unlistenable (to me at least) curiosities it seems like it would be a worthwhile experiment for some talented instrument-maker to work up a mezzo-baritone saxophone.

Yes there is absolutely no existing music or repertoire for such a creation, but a skilled player could play by ear. I’d love to hear (and see) one.

 

[milandro]

the closest thing that anybody ever made was the Georgephone (still a Eb baritone).
Some time ago someone here came up with the idea of a short baritone , but frankly nobody has the time or the money to invest in such a project

 

[1saxman]

'Maybe I’m the only one who has ever conceived of such a hybrid horn.'

Highly likely.

 

[turf3]

Actually the F baritone has been a persistent myth for generations. As is well known, in the earliest days of the saxophone there were plans to have a family in C and F and another family in Bb and Eb. There is an Adolphe Sax bass in C extant. However, by the early 1900s the only members of the C/F family that ever went into series production were the C soprano and C melody - then Conn introduced the unsuccessful F mezzo in the 20s or 30s (not clear on the date). At any rate, rumours of an F baritone have been floating around for a very long time, ever since I was a young saxophonist. Every so often there is yet another supposed sighting - but they always turn out to be high pitch Eb baritones (which would play kind of halfway between a low pitch Eb and a low pitch E, in other words totally unusable in today's A-440 world).

So no, you're far from the first to conceive it.

Thing is, it's terribly involved to make one saxophone from scratch in a different pitch; and there's a ton of investment to enter series production. So with the Bb/Eb family well established, you've got to prove a need for a baritone in F before you can get anyone to invest, and you've got to have the instruments available before you can create a need.

 

[Graysax]

As the commonly called Conn F Alto is actually named a "F Mezzo Soprano" then what you are looking for is an "F Mezzo Tenor". A few other companies have made F Alto's, but they are more based on the Alto's chamber design. I'd say contact Paul Cohen if you want more specifics.

 

[Paul Cohen]

Benedict Eppelsheim has done something similar to this with his Kyhlbass. It is a bass sax in C with a tubax-type bore. It acts as a mezzo type of bass sax, and pitched so it can play traditional bass parts of bassoon, cello, bass etc. And it plays with an alto mouthpiece! There are some videos of the Kyhlbass I posted a while back on Facebook.
Paul Cohen

 

[BrianMitchellBrody]

the closest thing that anybody ever made was the Georgephone (still a Eb baritone).
Some time ago someone here came up with the idea of a short baritone , but frankly nobody has the time or the money to invest in such a project

There is a Brazilian company that makes short baritones the size of a tenor and bass like a baritone.

 

[milandro]

The brazilian company that you are referring to is Galassine , but I've yet to see a TRUE short baritone . I think there is something lost in translation.

There is some confusion to what people call what in Brazil and while the make a short wrap bass I have yet to see any real baritone.

For example in this video they call this a Sib ( Bb) Baritone, now we know that doesn't exist obvioulsy this sis a Bass with a double curl

They also make a lower baritone called a Controbaritone in Mib (Eb) which has borrowed some ideas from Eppelsheim I think obviously has a much longer tubing than a baritone hence the name controbaritone

They certainly produce Baritones and Basses with extended low range

There were two other companies in Brazil ( Lopez and J'elle Steiner but the last two have been under the radar lately)

 

[GreenBean]

View attachment 143825


If I'm not mistaken, the saxophone in the direct center is an F-mezzo bari sax (surrounded by other sax oddities), or that is what it looks like. It appears rather tenor-sized, but has features of a bari sax. I may be completely wrong, and the scale of the image just looks weird.

I know very little about where this image is from, likely a sax museum. Here is where this image is from, if you are interested:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/411727590905663032/

 

[milandro]

it could simply be (as other saxophones there) a short range baritone from high Eb to Low B

Adolphe Sax’s E-flat baritone saxophone | Heritage KBF

www.heritage-kbf.be

 

[Nguyen]

I suggested this a while ago, it seems like the one possible saxophone size that's never really been tried. I'm thinking it should be in G rather than F, to make it maximally different from the Eb baritone.

 

[milandro]

I suppose that everything could be invented but there would be a huge cost and probably no market , once the novelty effect would wear out, few would be buying such horn.

This was the reason why other such oddities never found the market's favour

 

[FisherSax]

I suggested this a while ago, it seems like the one possible saxophone size that's never really been tried. I'm thinking it should be in G rather than F, to make it maximally different from the Eb baritone.

I think it would need to be in F to preserve the interval relationships between SATB using F bari, C Melody, F Mezzo, and C sop. That way standard sax quartet music would still be playable with all voices sounding a tone higher.

 

[SaxBerg]

Peter Jessen in Denmark has invented and makes the G Mezzo Soprano saxophone. Joe Lovano, amongst others, play this soprano. So the "Mezzo concept" has been successful for the soprano sax range (in terms of usefulness not sales).