Now under the category of: Instruments That Clowns Under the Big Top Might Play, comes the following combination of soprano and tenor saxophones. This combo horn is the brainchild of Louis B. Massa of Bergenfield, NJ. Massa received US Patent 4,341,146, for his invention in July 1982.
Source: Google Patents
There are some obvious, and some not so obvious mods that have been to these 2 instruments, which allow for this Rahsaan Roland Kirk-inspired creation to work. These modifications include:
- Both the soprano and tenor bells have been replaced by trumpet bells.
- The 2 horns are joined together by a bracket, which allow the player to adjust the soprano for optimum sound.
- Both horns have had some of their tone holes altered.
- The tenor is cut off just below its F# tone hole.
- The tenor also has had its G# key removed.
- The soprano is cut off just above its F# tone hole.
- On both horns, the same tone holes are blocked off.
What does this leave the player with? According to the Patent:
A musical instrument combining a modified portion of a tenor saxophone with a modified portion of a soprano saxophone joined together by means of a bracket whereby one of the two instruments can be moved relative to the other to obtain proper alignment whereby the two instruments can be played simultaneously. Each of the two instruments is provided with its own mouthpiece whereby a musician may play two notes simultaneously. Each instrument is also fitted with a trumpet bell outlet.
Source: Google Patents
Is anyone asking themselves the same question that I am: Why would someone do this?
Sure Rahsaan Roland Kirk did some pretty odd stuff, like adding a mellophone bell to his Saxello and calling it a manzello, but his horns weren’t transected. He was still able to play multiple horns simultaneously without cutting them in half. Is this patented soprano/tenor combo just a dummied-down version for musicians? I don’t think so.
Sure it’s a novelty instrument, but for what purpose? For circus performers? When I worked as a clown back in my university days, this would have been a great prop. But beyond that type of work, I’m not seeing any practical application.
I’ve not seen anything like this in my travels. That said, I haven’t worked as a clown since the 80s, and never for a circus.
Maybe someone who stumbles across this post sometime will recognize this combo instrument. I suspect that perhaps it was built and used by someone—maybe someone who worked as a clown—and they decided to patent it. Or perhaps I’m totally wrong.
If you recognize this instrument, please chime in and tell me where you’ve seen it, and what you might know about it. Until then, it will just be filed under oddball saxophone inventions that didn’t gain a lot of traction.
Thanks Paul, for chiming in with your knowledge of this quirky instrument.
So my designed by a clown for use under the bigtop theory was incorrect. Mmmm… Oh well, it certainly seemed plausible. 😮
A quick search of Google this morning turned up the following link to Lou Massa’s High Torque CD, complete with album art.
Does this bring back memories!
If I recall correctly, the proper name for this creation is the “saxette”. It was featured on Lou’s self-produced CD High Torque, released in 1993(?), or there about.
I met Lou about 30 years ago when he was running Pyramid Recording out of his home (before it moved to Keansburg, NJ), and all I can say is, he was creative like that. He just thought it wasn’t enough to be a solid bari player, and it would be really cool to have a patent to his name.
It was the Massaphone, or at least became that. We did an album together, before he passed called Questions, but this time it was mostly vocal and a concept album. I miss him dearly. He was a great teacher and a great friend. He did use it on one album and your timeframe seems about right.
Sounds like a poor man’s Aulochrome. (http://www.aulochrome.com/)
If you don’t feel like following the link, the Aulochrome is basically two soprano saxophones built together and mechanically linked so that it is not necessary to compromise the ability to play any note on either bore. I don’t know exactly how it is done – I was looking for one at the Francois Louis booth at Winter NAMM 2010, but sadly all they had was the blueprint. 😡
I have messed with some fingering systems that would allow fully chromatic control of two saxophones at once, albeit with a smaller range — but basically I was going to re-purpose the B and Bb pinky keys to produce F# and F, and have the G# key (there would be no need for a low C# key, obviously) open high E if the third finger is not down. The right hand horn would be the same, just mirrored. I realized there would be problems with trills in this system, so I started thinking of other ways to do it. The easiest to play (but not so much to implement) would be something more like a piano keyboard – pick your note and the horn would use a little electronic magic to do the fingering for you. Press two keys and it would either play the higher or lower note, depending on your preferences. This would allow for easy trills (just hold one and toggle the other). Each hand would have its own little keyboard.
Then I realized that it was a whole lot easier to use a vocal harmonizer and a normal horn, and that this covers the vast majority of the polyphonic situations I’m liable to encounter. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s cheap and moderately effective.