[Saxohorn]

Hi all. First post and as green as you can get. I found an old (late 1920's) alto with a curved neck and states it's "low pitch" Here's where I show my "greeness." Do they or did they ever make altos with a curved neck or is the owner wrong? Also, not sure what "low pitch" means. Is the sax in a different key other than Bb or does it have to do with A-240 which I know nothing about either. I tried to tell you I was green, but you wouldn't listen. Thanks for giving me my first sax lesson.

 

[1958SelmerMarkVI]

LOL, you certainly are green! First off, an alto would not be in Bb...alto is an Eb horn (so is bari). Tenor and soprano are in Bb. Also, you mentioned A-220, but what you probably meant was A=440, which is standard pitch. Of course an A an octave lower would be half the frequency, but that would be 220, not 240. 'Low pitch' is related to that, and low pitch is good. Back in the old days, mostly pre-1920's, the world had not settled on the pitch standard of A=440. In some parts of the world they tuned higher (A=454 I think). Now the world has settled on low pitch, for the most part anyway, so a high pitch instrument would be impossible to play in tune withb a kodern ensemble. As for the tenor neck on the alto, what you most likely have is not an alto at all, but a 'C melody', which is essentially a tenor in the key of C, slightly smaller than a normal tenor. They were popular in the 1920's bc, being in concert pitch, you could play along with piano or vocal sheet music without the need to transpose. At that time most sax players were amateurs playing at home. Now most people start playing with a school band, and composers have long since abandoned writing parts for C melody (not they ever really did I suppose).