Curios, News, & Chronicles

Adolphe Sax—the Belgian musician, instrument maker, and inventor—was born on today’s date in 1814.  While known primarily for creating the saxophone, he also invented a large number of other instruments bearing his name, and developed a clever strategy for creating his brand.

La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, Vol. 39 No. 17 (28 April 1872): 136.

An advertisement featuring images of Adolphe Sax’s many instruments

In recognition of his birth, we highlight the manner in which the press reflected his successful business enterprise in 1840s Paris.

Jules Worm, “Adolphe Sax. —D’après une photographie de MM Mayer et Pierson,” L’Illustration, Vol. XLII (5 September 1863): 175, published in H. Robert Cohen, Les Gravures Musicales dans L’Illustration, Vol. 1  (Quebec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1982): 518.

Soon after arriving in Paris in the spring of 1841, Sax received much attention in the press and the strong advocacy of critics, composers, and performers.  For example, Hector Berlioz championed Sax, hailing him in the 12 June 1842 issue of the Journal des débats, as a leading figure in the development of woodwind and brass instruments.

Mr. Adolphe Sax of Brussels, whose work we have just examined, has without doubt made a powerful contribution to the revolution which is about to take place.  He is a clever, far-sighted man, of penetrating and clear intelligence, self-willed with a persevering spirit able to withstand all trials, enormously skilled, always ready to replace even specialist workmen incapable of understanding and realizing his plans.  At the same time, he is a shrewd man, an acoustician, and when necessary, a smelter, a turner and chiseler.

Hector Berlioz, “Instrumens de musique—M. Ad. Sax,” Journal des débats politiques et littéraires (12 June 1842): 3.

In his 1844 Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes, Berlioz featured the saxophone in a section devoted to new instruments.  This text was later translated and reprinted in the Musical Review and Musical World.

The Musical Review and Musical World, Vol. 11 No. 24 (24 November 1860): 339.

The well-known critic and conductor François-Joseph Fétis also wrote favorably of Sax’s instruments.  In a translated review of Halévy’s opera, Le Juif errant, Fétis remarked on the dramatic effects of the newly-invented saxtuba, as well as the “sympathetic sonorousness” of the saxophone.

The Musical World, Vol. 30 No. 31 (31 July 1852): 490-91.

Internationally acclaimed performers were also advocates for his instruments.  While in Paris in 1844, the Distins—a family quintet of British brass musicians—acquired the first saxhorns.  Soon after, La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris mentions in a brief concert report the relationship between Sax and the traveling performers.

The next morning Mr. Distin and his family, also from the United Kingdom of Great Britain, performed on Adolphe Sax’s excellent instruments, in the hall of Mr. Herz, and produced their accustomed effect. The pieces:  “Robert, you whom I love,” the finale of Lucia, and especially God Save the King, delighted the almost all English audience, who also had the pleasure of applauding an English pianist, Mr. Julien Adams, who performed a Weber piano concerto quite well.

La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, Vol. 11 No. 13 (31 March 1844): 116.

By 1843 Adolphe Sax had established his workshop, building an impressive range of both woodwind and brass instruments.  But more than variety, it was the quality of production that underlay Sax’s manufacturing.  As Horwood states, “he intended to produce each part of every instrument under his personal strict supervision so that any instrument bearing his name as an indication of its quality would have been wholly and completely made in the Sax workshop.”[1] By 1844, his workshop on rue Saint-Georges was, as these engravings indicate, already efficient, successful and bursting with activity.

The ground floor of Sax’s workshop

Édouard Renard et Henri Valentin, “Fabrique d’instruments de musique de M. Sax,” L’Illustration, Vol. X (5 February 1848): 357, published in H. Robert Cohen, Les Gravures Musicales dans L’Illustration, Vol. 1 (Quebec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1982): 148.

The workshop’s second floor

With the creation of his workshop and backing of the musical elite, Adolphe Sax began marketing his products to the masses.  While touring musicians like the Distins promoted his instruments internationally, concerts at the Salle Sax, rue Saint-Georges, depicted below, allowed the public to experience the design and sound of Sax’s latest creations.

Jules Gaildrau, “Audition des instruments récemment inventés par M. Adolphe Sax,” L’Illustration, Vol. XLIV (16 July 1864): 48,  published in H. Robert Cohen, Les Gravures Musicales dans L’Illustration, Vol. 2 (Quebec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1982): 535.

Sax also extensively promoted his creations with advertisements such as the first illustration above, and the following two.

La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, Vol. 31 No. 16 (17 April 1864): 128.

La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, Vol. 30 No. 31 (2 August 1863): 248.

In celebration of the bicentennial of his birth, saxophone professor and researcher José-Modesto Diago Ortega produced an interesting video that cleverly permits one to view the engravings of Sax’s workshop (depicted above) from within.  It’s well worth viewing.

Lest we think that he has been forgotten, Google recently spotlighted Adolphe Sax both in a search engine “doodle” and in an excellent presentation of his instruments by the Google Cultural Institute, in collaboration with the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota.

RIPM Search Tip: For more information on Adolphe Sax, search for “Sax” in the Retrospective Index and e-Library of Music Periodicals.  For more focused results, select a specific language before searching!

[1] Wally Horwood, Adolphe Sax 1814-1894—His Life and Legacy (Hertfordshire, UK: Egon Publishers, 1983), 44.

National Public Radio in the United States recently commemorated the centennial anniversary of Jascha Heifetz’s American debut at Carnegie Hall.  Here are some related images from our archives.

Heifetz in 1913 at the age of twelve.

Musical America, Vol. 25 No. 19 (10 March 1917): 11.

A young Heifetz with Professor Auer and his violin students at summer school in Dresden.

Musical America, Vol. 21 No. 1 (7 November 1914): 25.

Heifetz, a young man, with Professor Auer and his violin students in Petrograd (St. Petersburg).

Musical America, Vol. 24 No. 22 (30 September 1916): 11.

One month before the arrival of Heifetz in America

Musical America, Vol. 26 No. 18 (1 September 1917): 2.

The announcement of Heifetz’s debut.

Musical America, Vol. 26 No. 25 (20 October 1917): 33.

A compilation of reviews in several newspapers from his debut

                Musical America, Vol. 27 No. 1 (3 November 1917): 18.  

He has a technic which must make him the admiration and the despair of all the other violinists.  His finger work is almost unerring, whether in rapid flights or in intricate passages of double stopping.  But better than this is the exquisite finish, elasticity and resource of his bowing, which gives him a supreme command of all the tonal nuances essential to style and interpretation.

Above, The New York World (28 October 1917).

Genius is a big word for which there seldom is use.  Comparatively few persons are qualified to have it applied to them.  Yet one such–a seventeen-year-old Russian youth–stood upon the Carnegie Hall stage yesterday afternoon and before his musical task was half completed an audience numbering more than 2,000, that knew, pronounced him the greatest violinist heard here in years.

Above, The New York Sun (28 October 1917)

Musical America, Vol. 27 No. 2 (10 November 1917): 3.

He quickly settled in New York City …

… and traveled the country.

Musical America, Vol. 27 No. 9 (29 December 1917): 47.

A rare photo of a playful Heifetz.

Musical America, Vol. 29 No. 15 (8 February 1919): 48.

A telling commentary, one month after his American debut.

“Mephistos Musings,” Musical America, Vol. 27 No. 2 (10 November 1917): 8.

Finally, Heifetz with his beloved Professor Aurer.

RIPM search tip:  A search for “Heifetz” in RIPM’s e-Library of Music Periodicals reveals that his name appears at least once on 1,545 pages!

A series of focused advertisements by the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ began appearing in Musical America in late 1905.  Along with promoting the sale of recordings for the pleasure of listening, the company’s advertisements also promoted their “Red Seal” records as a tool for individual instruction for singers. By securing exclusive contracts with the most revered opera stars of the day, Victor offered people the chance to “study” with their vocal idols.  All one had to do was purchase a Victor Talking Machine, a handful of records, and, listen.

Are you interested in “making great strides forward in you musical education”
… and improving your sense of expression, diction and breathing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmR1h5B5Thk

[Musical America, Vol. 4 No. 24 (27 October 1906): 18

Do you want to improve your phrasing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCrbs0OtmJ0

[Musical America, Vol. 5 No. 2 (24 November 1906): 18]

Did you miss that magic moment from the back row of the opera hall?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t936rzOt3Zc

[Musical America, Vol. 4 No. 13 (11 August 1906): 14]

Tired of all the painstaking hours of practicing with little to no improvement?
Then take a more leisurely approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbQSrDTrVnE

[Musical America, Vol. 9 No. 16 (27 February 1909): 31]

Do you even need a teacher when you can study with the best vocal instructors at home?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G98hlUfue54

[Musical America, Vol. 10 No. 6 (19 June 1909): 27]

And, of course, learning is a life-long undertaking and
there is always room for improvement.

[Musical America, Vol. 16 No. 10 (13 July 1912): 15]

Caruso listening to Caruso

RIPM search tip:  Select Musical America in the periodical title field of RIPM’s e-Library of Music Periodicals, and search for  “talking machine.” This yields over one-thousand pages of pertinent content.  For more focused results, restrict your search to a span of years.

A transcript printed in Musical America of an address to the 1909 New York State Teacher’s Convention claims that certain people were at a distinct physiological disadvantage when playing the piano, so much so, that they should have their own separate literature.

[Kate S. Chittenden, “Piano Repertoire for Small-Handed Performers,” Musical America, Vol. 10 No. 9 (10 July 1909): 18.]

Harriette Brower also wrote in Musical America about the value of octave studies at the keyboard for aiding students with small hands.

[Harriette Brower, “Value of Octave Study to the Piano Student,” Musical America, Vol. 17 No. 19 (15 March 1913): 26.]

For many, hand size, apparently, did matter.  Of course having small hands is a hindrance to performing certain repertoire with wide intervals.  But beyond anatomy, the perception that small-handed people were impeded from becoming virtuosos was linked to the large hands of master performers of the previous generation.

In a satirical piece entitled “Hands, Insanus omnis faere credit ceteros [Every madman thinks all others insane],” a certain Dr. Legs and Dr. Body praised the hand size and strength of Franz Liszt over the “sad” hands of Chopin.

Dr. Legs and Dr. Body, featured in The Musical World

[Anon., “Hands. Insanus omnis faere credit ceteros,” The Musical World, Vol. 56 No. 19 (11 May 1878): 318.]

Liszt’s “square, large hand” with “longer, knotted fingers” and “iron knuckles” was, according to the doctors, the preferred anatomy for the “command of learned music.”

Along with the hands of Liszt, those of Anton Rubinstein were also admired. A description of the latter was given in a translation of Eugen Zabel’s contribution to the Berlin National-Zeitung.

Zabel continued by declaring Rubinstein’s hands a rarity in size and strength, even bordering on animalistic.

[Rosa Newmarch, “Rubinstein’s Hand,” The Musician, Vol. 2 No. 28 (17 November 1897): 29-31.]

In fact, hands described as square, wide, and powerful, like those of Liszt and Rubinstein reinforced the benefits of having large hands at the piano. By contrast, this view implied that small hands could prevent one from attaining true piano mastery.

To remedy this limitation, physical exercises were often given by teachers and specialists. With consistent training, it was believed that small hands could in fact, grow. A 1912 advertisement from a “hand specialist” named Burnett Jordan visually demonstrated the benefits of such specialized training.

[Musical America, Vol. 16 No. 23 (12 October 1912): 99.]

Jordan’s teacher, the German hand-training specialist Woldemar Schnee, traveled to America for several extended residencies in 1914 and again, in 1922.  With looming Brahmsian features, Schnee reinforced the advantages of having large hands like Rubinstein and Liszt, and promised to enlarge the hands of those less pianistically endowed.

[Musical America, Vol. 37 No. 5 (25 November 1922): 44]

[H. F. P., “Lending Size and Strength to the Hands of the Pianist,” Musical America, Vol. 19 No. 17 (28 February 1914): 29.]

Schnee’s technique—“stretching the skin” by “pulling the thumb and the fifth finger in opposite directions”—was admittedly painful, but not enough to deter pianists from seeking out his services in hopes of, quite literally, expanding their abilities.

While prevalent historically, the idea of small hands as wholly detrimental to great piano playing is a generally outdated concept, thanks to artists like Alicia de Larrocha, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Daniel Barenboim (maxing out his reach at the 9^th).  Some artists, like the fantastic music-comedy duo Igudesman and Joo, have even found a way to satirize this stereotype.  (Don’t pass up viewing this…)

RIPM search tip: For more information on “small-hand” repertoire and articles discussing hand size and piano technique, search for “small hands” in both the Retrospective Index, and in the e-Library of Music Periodicals.

Accompanied by his wife and children, Antonin Dvořák arrived in America on 27 September 1892 to assume the directorship of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.  Soon after this much anticipated event, Boston’s Musical Herald reprinted a review of the composer’s welcome concert by music critic H. E Krehbiel, originally written for the New York Tribune.  At the concert, Dvořák’s compositions and conducting were featured.

An illustration of Dvořák at the time of his stay in America

[The Musical Herald, Vol. 13 No. 12 (October 1892): 191.]

[The Musical Herald, Vol. 14 No. 1 (November 1892): 30-31.]

For more on Boston’s The Musical Herald, click on this link! http://ripm.org/index.php?page=JournalInfo&ABB=MHE

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A caricature of Richard Wagner by Charles Lyall

[The Musical World, Vol. 55 No. 21 (26 May 1877): 364]

Wagner’s Das Rheingold was performed for the first time in Munich on 22 September 1869. These comments appeared three days later in London’s Musical World.

[The Musical World, Vol. 47 No. 39 (25 September 1869): 672.]

For more on London’s The Musical World, click on this link! http://www.ripm.org/index.php?page=JournalInfo&ABB=MWO

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