{"id":4523,"date":"2009-01-15T10:51:19","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2009-08-07T22:28:21","modified_gmt":"2009-08-08T05:28:21","slug":"a-new-musical-instrument-the-aulochrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2009\/a-new-musical-instrument-the-aulochrome\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Musical Instrument: The Aulochrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day over on the Woodwind Forum, our newest Content Expert, Grant Green, started a thread on the Aulochrome<\/a>. The Aulochrome is the invention of Belgian instrument maker, Fran\u00e7ois Louis.<\/p>\n

\"aulochrome-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: aulochrome.com<\/h6>\n

The Aulochrome<\/a> is basically 2 soprano saxophones, combined together in such a way, that the player is able to play a combination of any 2 notes. The instrument is keyed to low A BTW.<\/p>\n

This is how is the Aulochrome is described:<\/p>\n

The Aulochrome, a chromatic Aulos, is a new polyphonic and chromatic woodwind instrument. It resembles two soprano saxophone bodies and uses a revolutionary mechanism, allowing the keys of both pipes to be played either separately or together over the entire range. Thus any possible interval can be played chromatically from the lowest note of one pipe to the highest note of the other pipe.<\/p>\n

The double mouthpiece is made of two separate elements placed together. The tone chambers are different, enabling independant harmonization in the two pipes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"aulochrome-21\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: aulochrome.com<\/h6>\n

The particular attention to the acoustics of this instrument opens up vast new possibilities to saxophonists.<\/p>\n

It allows producing differential tones (a virtual bass note resulting from the difference of the frequencies of the two notes of one interval) as well as additional tones, extending the lower register far below the deepest note determined by the length of the pipes. Also, a tiny “mistuning” of the unison generates beats; players can control the rhythm of the pulsations.<\/p>\n

All of this creates new tone effects by totally acoustic means and offers the possibility of playing contrapuntal lines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you are interested in what this little beastie sounds like, you can check out these videos of Joe Lovano playing the Aulochrome.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

<\/object>\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it’s always exciting to see new saxophones invented, and the Europeans have been doing exactly that over the past 20 years, I’m not so sure about soprano & higher pitched horns… But then I make no secret of my bias for the bigger saxophones.<\/p>\n

Maybe if Fran\u00e7ois Louis were to be able to come up with a design for a double tenor, or a double bari, that didn’t need double the air, I might seriously be suffering from a major attack of GAS.<\/p>\n

\n
…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span>My \u201creal\u201d <\/strong>website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span>sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day over on the Woodwind Forum, our newest Content Expert, Grant Green, started a thread on the Aulochrome. The Aulochrome is the invention …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[204,653,646,644,631,53,26],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soprano-saxophone","tag-aulochrome","tag-famous-not-so-famous-sax-players","tag-on-line-resources","tag-photos","tag-soprano-saxophone","tag-woodwind-forum","tag-youtube"],"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