{"id":41226,"date":"2014-04-07T09:20:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T17:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=41226"},"modified":"2024-06-12T11:57:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:57:39","slug":"hess-saxophones-another-saxophone-with-eyebrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2014\/hess-saxophones-another-saxophone-with-eyebrows\/","title":{"rendered":"Hess Saxophones: Another Saxophone With Eyebrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s dig into German saxophonlogical<\/em> history concerns the Ernst Hess Nachf company, and specifically, Hess saxophones post WWII.<\/p>\n

Hess: a victim of expropriation and forced relocation<\/h2>\n

As I explained on the Akustik page<\/a> of my website, the Ernst Hess Nachf company was the first company expropriated, when in 1946 the Communist government created the VEB S\u00e4chsische Musikinstrumentenfabrik. The saxophones that the newly-created VEB produced were branded Akustik.<\/p>\n

What many people likely don’t know, is that along with the more famous Keilwerth and Kohlert companies, Hess’ owners were also driven out of their homeland. Like its more famous counterparts, the company too started manufacturing musical instruments again.<\/p>\n

In this 1950 catalogue from Versandhaus Hess-Musik jetzt: M\u00fcnchen-Puchheim (Mail Order House Hess-Music now: Munich-Puchheim), the introductory page tells the interesting story of its new factory and instrument production. I have underlined the most salient parts.<\/p>\n

These crazy times have driven us out of our beautiful home<\/h2>\n

The page header tells us a lot already: What we lost in Klingenthal (Sachsen), we built here again new. Hess-Music now: Munich-Puchheim.<\/em> The buildings on the left depict the old factory in Klingenthal, while the large ones on the right Munich-Puchheim. But do you notice the small buildings in the background of the right diagram? The text reads: Homes of our craftsmen in the Hess-housing settlement. <\/em>That’s right, Hess built homes for its workers, since presumably many of them were expelled from Klingenthal as well.<\/p>\n

\"Hess-Musik,<\/a><\/p>\n

The new two-story, 2000 m\u00b2 (21,528 sq. ft.) factory that Hess built was only used for accordion production. According to what they’ve written here, the rest of their musical instruments were made by Sudeten German refugees<\/em>\u2014those who had been expelled from the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia after 1945\u2014in their home shops. Hess Musik however, assumed all guarantees for quality and clean workmanship.<\/p>\n

Hess saxophones<\/h2>\n

On the saxophone page of their catalogue, Hess describes two different models of horns. Besides the models, notice too that the company only produced alto and tenor saxophones. Furthermore, they state that their instruments are only available direct from M\u00fcnchen-Puchheim. In other words, as a mail order business, they eliminated the middleman, and sold directly to the public.<\/p>\n

When I first saw the drawing of the alto on this Hess saxophones catalogue page, I was struck by how closely they resembled those of the Keilwerth brothers. Specifically, from the time the brothers were working in Graslitz. For example:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The right pinkie keys are shaped similar to what we see in JK horns<\/a>, but also what we see in Akustik horns<\/a>. (Makes sense, since Akustik was based on the former Hess horns, and they had the same right pinkie key shape.)<\/li>\n
  2. The right palm keys are shaped like what we see on some of JK models<\/a> as well.<\/li>\n
  3. And the eyebrow key guards are what we know Max Keilwerth put on his President saxophones<\/a>, and there is evidence that at least some of his latter Graslitz-made horns<\/a> had them as well. Furthermore, last year a fellow contacted me about this JK-made King Imperial<\/a> with eyebrow key guards<\/a>. Its serial number would indicate its production date was 1937.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Unfortunately I have not yet found many Graslitz-made Hess saxophones in my online travels. Therefore I don’t know how closely the company’s pre-M\u00fcnchen-Puchheim horns resembled those post forced-relocation. I’m curious to see if Hess saxophones always looked a lot like Keilwerth saxophones. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did, since most German horn manufacturers borrowed heavily from each other.<\/p>\n

    \"Hess<\/a><\/p>\n

    Because I’m one for sick irony, I’d like to draw your attention to the middle section of the saxophone page, that reads: Vorschl\u00e4ge \u00fcber die Kapellenbesetz\u00fcng<\/em> (Suggestions for instrumentation). 1. Is for Woodwind and brass ensembles.<\/p>\n

    You might not be able to read German, but I can tell you that the German word for saxophone is Saxophon. Do you see Saxophon anywhere in the listing of suggested instruments? Nope. It’s not there. Now why would Hess-Musik print an instrumentation listing for a band on the saxophone page of their catalogue, and not list saxophones in the mix?<\/p>\n

    Why would I as a consumer, want to buy a Hess saxophone, when the company is advertising on their saxophone page, that they don’t suggest bands use any. But by all means, bands should use tenorhorns<\/a>. When was the last time you saw one of those around? It seems to me their instrumentation suggestion was a bit slanted towards the brass winds, but hey that’s just me. Thousands of trumpet, trombone, French horn, and tenorhorn players would likely disagree. \ud83d\ude08<\/p>\n

    More than just eye candy and musical instruments<\/h2>\n

    As you can see from the catalogue cover page, Hess-Musik sold more than musical instruments. Below the photo of famous accordion player Marika R\u00f6kk with her Hess accordion, notice the other items shown on the front cover. Apparently one could also order watches, clocks, and other quality items <\/em>from Hess-Musik. I wonder if Hess employees made these items as well?<\/p>\n

    \"Hess-Musik,<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you have a Hess saxophone, either from Klingenthal or Munich, I would love to hear from you. If you’d like to share photos of your horn, even better. Please contact me<\/a> and tell me a bit about your sax. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Today’s dig into German saxophonlogical history concerns the Ernst Hess Nachf company, and specifically, Hess saxophones post WWII. Hess: a victim of expropriation and forced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[78],"tags":[151,644,643,31,573],"class_list":["post-41226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-horns","tag-german-saxophones","tag-photos","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax","tag-vintageantique-catalogues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t