Tenor Saxophone Research Articles

"Found Connections" Concerto for Multi-Instrumentalist. José Valentino, C Flute, Tenor Saxophone, and Bass Guitar and University of Florida Wind Symphony, World Premiere Concert. April 25th, 2023. Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

"Found Connections" Concerto for Multi-Instrumentalist. José Valentino, C Flute, Tenor Saxophone, and Bass Guitar and University of Florida Wind Symphony, World Premiere Concert. April 25th, 2023. Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Review: "Found Connections" Concerto for Multi-Instrumentalist. José Valentino, C Flute, Tenor Saxophone, and Bass Guitar and University of Florida Wind Symphony, World Premiere Concert.

Review: "Found Connections" Concerto for Multi-Instrumentalist. José Valentino, C Flute, Tenor Saxophone, and Bass Guitar and University of Florida Wind Symphony, World Premiere Concert.

Opening the “Door”: A Multifaceted Approach to the Analysis of Text Setting in the Third Movement of Kate Soper’s “Door” (2007)

Abstract: The majority of Kate Soper’s (b. 1981) output as a composer-vocalist focuses intensely on the relationship between words and music. Methods of text and music analysis have primarily focused on relating musical materials to the semantic meaning of texts or have studied the ways composers musicalize sounds and use the materiality of poetry. Building on past scholarship and drawing from Soper’s program note to “Door” (2007), a setting of poems by Martha Collins for soprano, flute, tenor saxophone, accordion, and electric guitar, I develop a model that looks beyond semantics to investigate the roles of acoustic and aesthetic properties of words. My novel approach examines the relationship between music and words through four different but interrelated interpretive lenses: 1. Lexical, 2. Figurative, 3. Acoustic, and 4. Aesthetic. I demonstrate my methodology using the third movement of “Door” as a case study. I use Lexical interpretation to interrogate the piece-specific associations developed by Soper. My Figurative interpretation draws on the meaning of the words and extrapolates meaning from the poem before finding sonic analogues within the music. Acoustic interpretation involves inspecting the phonemes and acoustic envelopes of words and relating them to Soper’s choice of instruments. Finally, I observe which qualities of the poem and text resonate with me. Through Aesthetic interpretation, I attempt to understand what makes these qualities appealing. This multifaceted approach opens the door to consideration of new dimensions of comparison between text and music.

Musical training is not associated with spectral context effects in instrument sound categorization.

Musicians display a variety of auditory perceptual benefits relative to people with little or no musical training; these benefits are collectively referred to as the "musician advantage." Importantly, musicians consistently outperform nonmusicians for tasks relating to pitch, but there are mixed reports as to musicians outperforming nonmusicians for timbre-related tasks. Due to their experience manipulating the timbre of their instrument or voice in performance, we hypothesized that musicians would be more sensitive to acoustic context effects stemming from the spectral changes in timbre across a musical context passage (played by a string quintet then filtered) and a target instrument sound (French horn or tenor saxophone; Experiment 1). Additionally, we investigated the role of a musician's primary instrument of instruction by recruiting French horn and tenor saxophone players to also complete this task (Experiment 2). Consistent with the musician advantage literature, musicians exhibited superior pitch discrimination to nonmusicians. Contrary to our main hypothesis, there was no difference between musicians and nonmusicians in how spectral context effects shaped instrument sound categorization. Thus, musicians may only outperform nonmusicians for some auditory skills relevant to music (e.g., pitch perception) but not others (e.g., timbre perception via spectral differences).

Aransemen Lagu Buku Ende No.471 Hupillit Jesus Dongan Ki Pada Permainan Kuartet Saxophone Di GKPI Pagar Beringin Permai

This thesis discusses the presentation of the arrangement of the song Hupillit Jesus Dongan Ki which is found in ende book number 471 and logu book number 318 by Karl Kuhlo. The author presents this arrangement in the form of a saxophone quartet instrument, namely soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone. This production uses a 4/4 time signature and the basic note F = do with Andante tempo (MM 85). The author worked on this song in the form of a saxophone quartet, while maintaining the original melody of this song which was sung by the soprano saxophone. However, for alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, each melody is the result of developing ideas from the main melody. The development of the form of melody, rhythm, tempo, harmony, dynamics, in this arrangement aims to deepen the message and meaning of the song. According to the title of the research, the researcher used a qualitative descriptive research method, namely by describing the arrangement of the song Hupillit Jesus Dongan Ki by Karl Kuhlo on a saxophone quartet playing at GKPI Pagar Beringin Permai, which was carried out in August - September 2023. By conducting observations and interviews, looking for literature and several sources related to arranging and saxophone, and arranging in writing. The result of this research is a new presentation concept for the song Hupillit Jesus Dongan Ki in the form of a saxophone quartet instrument. The different sound characteristics of each saxophone instrument make the harmony of the song even more beautiful. Improvised forms of alto, tenor and baritone saxophone melodies can fill in any gaps in the main melody, thereby enriching the harmony of the song Hupillit Jesus Dongan Ki..

Surmounting the Skepticism: Developing a Research-Creation Methodology

This paper was written to help address the tenuous status of research-creation at the University of Toronto, where I am a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate. There, I devised a “feedback saxophone” system in which I combine the tenor saxophone with various microphones and speakers to encourage and control acoustic feedback. The DMA program at U of T is classified as professional, so the premise of centering my thesis around my feedback saxophone practice was met with some healthy skepticism. This was not because it was viewed as uninteresting, but because creative practice is not typically considered a justifiable form of research in thesis writing. To therefore bolster research-creation as a legitimate form of scholarly inquiry and to build a model for my own research in music, I aim to answer two questions, insofar as they pertain to my research-creation project: (1) “How is creative practice research?” and (2) “What methods are appropriate for carrying out my creative practice as research?” In answering the first, I draw from the literature to demonstrate how research-creation is a form of knowledge gener- ation that complements conventional modes of investigation. Following this, I examine different categories of research-creation and illustrate them on a music research “compass” to facilitate comparison and understanding. To answer the second question, I discuss two relevant research-creation methodologies and combine them to construct my own “problem-practice-exegesis” approach. I conclude by detailing how I carry out my research using this methodology. Through this work, I endeavor to provide a practical model for graduate artist-researchers who are interested in integrating their creative practices with thesis writing and to contribute to the validation of research-creation within Canadian graduate music programs and beyond.

Sons of Kemet, Gorilla, Manchester, United Kingdom—February 19, 2022

Sons of Kemet, Gorilla, Manchester, United Kingdom—February 19, 2022

Skylighght: Form and methodology for an encounter between the voice and saxophone

Skylighght is a piece for voice and tenor saxophone created by Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers, of thingNY. The half-hour piece explores the duet structure in a number of different configurations, offering an intimate and vulnerable practice for finding the meeting ground of the voice and the saxophone, both sonically and physically. This Voicing contains the prose score for the piece with extensive description and methodologies for how to perform the piece. Some sections of the work respond to architectural space, while others use the unique pairing of a vocalist singing into the bell of the saxophone to make novel sounds. The final movement, ‘Building Canyons’, is designed for spotlighting the extraordinary multiphonics and harmonic partials that can be created when a vocalist sings into the instrument while the saxophonist is playing from the other end.

Experimental acoustic modal analysis of a tenor saxophone.

This paper presents an application of the Experimental Acoustic Modal Analysis (AMA) on a vintage 10 M Conn tenor saxophone. This technique originates from the traditional Modal Analysis which is commonly adopted to determine the dynamic behaviour of solid structures. The methodology is based on the measurement of Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) as a ratio of the acoustic pressure, measured by means of a set of microphones positioned along the saxophone body, and the volume velocity produced by an acoustic source and measured at the instrument input. The microphones are housed on the stripped saxophone keys by means of tailored three-dimensional printed adapters. The AMA makes use of the FRFs to extract modal parameters, such as resonance frequencies, loss factors, and mode shapes. These parameters pertain to the cavity modes of the saxophone passive resonator. The analysis has been performed for three different notes (B ♭, B, and C) and for two registers of the instrument in order to show the potential of the technique. Moreover, the influence of the mouthpiece volume on the cavity modes has been shown. The information obtained by AMA can find useful application in the validation of analytical or numerical models of this kind of musical instruments.

The Magnitude of the Frequency Jitter of Acoustic Waves Generated by Wind Instruments Is of Relevance for the Live Performance of Music

It is shown that a gold-plated device mounted on a tenor saxophone, forming a small bridge between the mouthpiece and the S-bow, can change two characteristics of the radiated sound: (1) the radiated acoustic energy of the harmonics with emission maxima around 1500–3000 Hz, which is slightly reduced for tones played in the lower register of the saxophone; (2) the frequency jitter of all tones in the regular and upper register of the saxophone show a two-fold increase. Through simulated phase-shifted superimpositions of the recorded waves, it is shown that the cancellation of acoustic energy due to antiphase superimposition is significantly reduced in recordings with the bridge. Simulations with artificially generated acoustic waves confirm that acoustic waves with a certain systematic jitter show less cancelling of the acoustic energy under a phase-shifted superimposition, compared to acoustic waves with no frequency jitter; thus, being beneficial for live performances in small halls with minimal acoustic optimization. The data further indicate that the occasionally hearable “rumble” of a wind instrument orchestra with instruments showing slight differences in the frequency of the harmonics might be reduced (or avoided), if the radiated acoustic waves have a systematic jitter of a certain magnitude.

Testing the relationship between musical training and context effects in music perception

Contrast effects occur in all sensory modalities and are critical for auditory perception. When successive sounds differ in their spectra, the auditory system exaggerates this difference, and we perceive a larger change than is physically present. This is known as a spectral contrast effect (SCE). For example, when a context sound is filtered to emphasize the frequencies of the French horn (a predominantly low-frequency spectrum), listeners categorize a later target sound as tenor saxophone (comparatively higher-frequency spectrum) more often [Stilp et al., Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 72(2), 470–480 (2010)]. Musicians outperform non-musicians on many auditory tasks, including pitch discrimination, but whether this ‘musician advantage’ extends to SCEs in music perception is unknown. Here, on each trial, non-musicians and musicians heard a context sound (string quintet filtered to emphasize the frequencies of the horn or saxophone) before categorizing the target sound (six-step series that varied from horn to saxophone). Musicians are predicted to have larger SCE magnitudes than non-musicians due to their enhanced auditory skills. However, if musicians do not show larger SCEs, this suggests musical training might improve only some aspects of music perception. Results from this task, a pitch discrimination task, and musical experience questionnaires will be discussed.

A Conflux of Musical Logics: Memory, History and the Improvisative Music of SLANT

The author discusses SLANT, an improvisation-based project he coconceived, recorded and performed on tenor saxophone in duo with pianist and new music specialist Richard Valitutto. The project deconstructs sound worlds such as late nineteenth-century Romanticism, avant-garde/free jazz, microtonal spectralism and southeast European rural music. Drawing on George Lewis's systems of improvisative musicality, the article analyzes SLANT through the lens of sociomusical experience. The author shows how Afrological, Eurological and other systems of musicality participate together, manifesting in dialogical improvisative music-making that emerges from multiethnic and multicultural histories of improvised music.

Natural music context biases musical instrument categorization.

Perception of sounds occurs in the context of surrounding sounds. When spectral properties differ between earlier (context) and later (target) sounds, categorization of later sounds becomes biased through spectral contrast effects (SCEs). Past research has shown SCEs to bias categorization of speech and music alike. Recent studies have extended SCEs to naturalistic listening conditions when the inherent spectral composition of (unfiltered) sentences biased speech categorization. Here, we tested whether natural (unfiltered) music would similarly bias categorization of French horn and tenor saxophone targets. Preceding contexts were either solo performances of the French horn or tenor saxophone (unfiltered; 1 secondduration in Experiment 1, or 3 seconds durationin Experiment 2) or a string quintet processed to emphasize frequencies in the horn or saxophone (filtered; 1 secondduration). Both approaches produced SCEs, producing more "saxophone" responses following horn/ horn-like contexts and vice versa. One-second filtered contexts produced SCEs as in previous studies, but 1-second unfiltered contexts did not. Three-second unfiltered contexts biased perception, but to a lesser degree than filtered contexts did. These results extend SCEs in musical instrument categorization to everyday listening conditions.

Earlier music biases subsequent musical instrument categorization

Perception of sounds occurs in the context of surrounding sounds. When spectral properties differ between earlier (context) and later (target) sounds, categorization of later sounds becomes biased through spectral contrast effects (SCEs). Past research has shown SCEs to bias categorization of speech and music alike. Additionally, the magnitudes of SCEs are not all-or-none but vary continuously in both speech and music categorization. Recently, the natural spectral composition of (unfiltered) sentences biased speech categorization via SCEs (Stilp and Assgari, under review). Here, we tested whether natural (unfiltered) music would similarly bias categorization of French horn and tenor saxophone targets. Preceding contexts were either solo performances of the French horn or tenor saxophone (unfiltered) or a string quintet processed to emphasize frequencies in the horn or saxophone (filtered). Categorization was influenced by SCEs in both unfiltered and filtered conditions, with more “saxophone” responses following horn / horn-like contexts and vice versa. Since unfiltered music produced SCEs in musical instrument categorization, this extends their influence to everyday listening conditions.

Idiom Musikal Minangkabau dalam Komposisi Karawitan, Sebuah Analisis Konteks Adaptasi Musikal

The study aims at understanding and analyzing (a) understanding of the terminology of the composition and method of cultivation so that the terms of composition and arrangement can be understood contextually, (b) the mustering of Minangkabau musical idioms developed using Western elements and instruments to become a work of music; (c) Adapting Minangkabau karawitan to Western music concepts in a musical work in Karawitan ISI Padangpanjang. This research is field work, field includes observation, interview, and recording. Work in the laboratory includes processing, selecting, and filtering field data. The method used is qualitative method verivikatif begins with data collection both field, interview, and library then looking for theoretical approach to analyze the data that have been obtained. The results of the analysis show (a) The existence of inappropriate perception of the term compositional terms to be confused with the term arrangement. Cultivation works tend to be done collectively, not purely from the creativity of the owner of the work, but the work of the music on behalf of a person alone. (b) There is the use of Western musical elements and instruments in musical works in the form of harmonious harmonies, homophonic textures and polyphony and the use of flute instruments, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tuba, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drum set. (c) Minangkabau Karawitan adapts to Western music in an academic context, in ISI Padangpanjang on musical forms.

Saxophone acoustics and marching bands

Historically saxophones appear in bands far after the beginning of Jazz history. Marching bands were mainly built around brass instruments and the saxophone appears alone in these bands. The main question that arises is “how this brass-woodwind succeeded to mix in such brass bands? The power of brass instruments is known to cover most woodwinds but the saxophone survives when flutes, with the exception of piccolo, disappeared. The answer could be in the design of saxophone and mainly in the design of tenor saxophone. The saxophone has been built and designed by A. Sax to be a powerful instrument able to cover or to compete with the sound of brass instruments, and he has been successful. We will show that in addition with the native sound power of its side, the saxophone exhibits a formant in the most sensitive part of our hearing system that gives it such “voicy” sound. Finally, we will show that saxophones are as wild instruments as the other members of marching bands with theses two characteristics power and voice.

"We Can Draw!": Toronto Improvisation, Abstract Expressionism, and the Artists’ Jazz Band

The Artists’ Jazz Band (AJB) was founded in 1962 in Toronto by abstract expressionist painters Graham Coughtry (trombone), Richard Gorman (double bass), Dennis Burton and Nobuo Kubota (alto saxophone), Robert Markle (tenor saxophone), and Gordon Rayner (drums). The AJB’s personnel shifted around this founding core, including pianist/trumpeter Michael Snow, electric bassist Jim Jones, guitarist Gerald McAdam, and saxophonist Bill Smith. They continued to perform into the 1990s. Few ensembles anywhere in the world so strongly foregrounded the relationship between abstract expressionism in the visual arts and jazz improvisation. Because of this, it is instructive to discuss the AJB’s music in terms of twentieth-century modernism, particularly in relation to the musicians’ immediate predecessors on the Toronto scene, Painters Eleven, and in the context of the automatistes in neighbouring Quebec, whose pioneering visual art also had ties to the free jazz of the 1960s and afterwards. The AJB’s introduction of modernist discourse—on the canvas and, by implication, in their music—influenced other improvisers associated with the AJB in the 1970s and 1980s. Modernist influences, stemming from the visual arts, encouraged a generation of musicians in Toronto to depart from more conventional “jazz” practices in order to pursue “free jazz,” free improvisation, and a host of performance possibilities.

Intermusicality, Space and Deleuzian Aesthetics in Jacques Réda’s “Quatre lettres de Coleman Hawkins”

Jacques Reda’s foundational relation to jazz is clear throughout his work. The monumental series of poems in L’Improviste, “Quatre lettres de Coleman Hawkins”, blends the influence of jazz in Reda’s work with his spatial poetics. Inspired by the tenor saxophone great, Reda himself improvises poetically to create a cadence that reflects the rhythms of this jazz icon. The intermusical synergy between jazz and poetry merges with intertextual improvisation through images of the sea and soaring that voice expressions of freedom and open space. In examining Reda’s poetic practice as spatial practice, this study also takes into account the spatial dimensions of Deleuze and Guattari’s thought, together with concepts they elaborate in relation to music. As Reda composes orchestral textures and movements through airborne images of clouds and birds that extend to the flowering world’s dispersive and generative momentum, a renewed and renewing space comes into being.

Tonal characteristics of saxophone mouthpieces: A comparison

The tonal characteristics of five different types of mouthpieces for the tenor saxophone will be compared. The mouthpieces are all widely available and used by present-day musicians; some are designed and marketed for general use and others are intended for specific musical styles or performance situations. Frequency spectra will be presented for each mouthpiece, and results will be discussed relative to the design features of each. Analytical data are in turn compared to the results of a survey among listeners seeking descriptive terms for the tonal characteristics produced.

Estimation of saxophone reed parameters during playing.

An approach for the estimation of single reed parameters during playing, using an instrumented mouthpiece and an iterative method, is presented. Different physical models describing the reed tip movement are tested in the estimation method. The uncertainties of the sensors installed on the mouthpiece and the limits of the estimation method are studied. A tenor saxophone reed is mounted on this mouthpiece connected to a cylinder, played by a musician, and characterized at different dynamic levels. Results show that the method can be used to estimate the reed parameters with a small error for low and medium sound levels (piano and mezzoforte dynamic levels). The analysis reveals that the complexity of the physical model describing the reed behavior must increase with dynamic levels. For medium level dynamics, the most relevant physical model assumes that the reed is an oscillator with non-linear stiffness and damping, the effect of mass (inertia) being very small.