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The saxtuba is an obsolete valved brasswind instrument conceived by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1845.〔Clifford Bevan (1990) gives the instrument's name as ''Saxtuba'' throughout. Other sources refer to the ''Sax-tuba'' or ''saxo-tuba''.〕 The design of the instrument was inspired by the ancient Roman cornu and tuba. The saxtubas, which comprised a family of half-tube and whole-tube instruments of varying pitches, were first employed in Fromental Halévy's opera ''Le Juif errant'' (''The Wandering Jew'') in 1852. Their only other public appearance of note was at a military ceremony on the Champ de Mars in Paris in the same year. * The term ''saxtuba'' may also refer to the bass saxhorn.〔(Merriam-Webster: Saxtuba ).〕 ==History== In the 1770s, the French artist Jacques-Louis David carried out extensive researches into the ancient Roman instruments that appeared on Trajan's Column in Rome. Two of these instruments – the straight tuba and the curved cornu – were revived in Revolutionary France as the ''buccin'' and ''tuba curva''.〔Bevan (1990), p. 136. The ''buccin'' of 1791 should not be confused with a slightly later instrument of the same name (buccin), which was a species of trombone.〕 To devise the saxtubas Sax merely added valves to these natural instruments, thus providing them with chromatic compasses. Furthermore, he designed them in such a way that the valves were hidden from general view, thus giving the impression that the instruments were primitive natural trumpets only capable of playing notes from a single harmonic series. The saxtuba was first conceived by Sax at his workshop in the Rue Saint-Georges in Paris around 1845.〔Haine (1980), p. 57. Sax set up his first workshop at 10 Rue Neuve-Saint-Georges in July 1843.〕 On 5 May 1849 Sax applied for a patent for a series of brasswind instruments fitted with cylinders. On 16 July 1849 he was granted French Patent 8351.〔''Brevet d'invention 8351.'' The patent was amended on 20 August 1849 and again on 23 April 1852; the latter, significantly, was the date of the première of ''Le Juif errant''. According to Haine (1980), pp. 196–197, Sax's two amendments were granted on 5 December 1849 (by which date Sax had moved his atelier to No. 50 Rue Saint-Georges) and 30 June 1852 respectively. But see also Bevan (1990), pp. 135 and 137, where the patent number is 4361.〕 Like Sax's saxhorns and saxotrombas, which were also covered by this patent, the saxtubas were equipped with ''pavillons tournants'' – that is to say, their bells pointed forward – which was considered ideal for instruments intended to be played by marching or mounted bands in the open air. The cylinders referred to in the patent application were piston valves which allowed the player to lower the pitch of the instrument's natural or open harmonics by one or more semitones. In 1843 Sax had patented his own version of the Berlin piston valve (i.e. the ''Berliner Pumpenventil'', which had been invented independently by Heinrich Stölzel in 1827 and Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht in 1833). These were independent valves, which were not designed to be used in combination with one another, though the intonational problems that arose when they were so used could often be corrected by the player's technique.〔This practice is known as ''lipping''. By slightly opening or closing the aperture of the lips, the player can alter the pitch of the note being played.〕 This was especially true in the case of the higher-pitched half-tube instruments, which were usually provided with just three valves, allowing the player to lower the pitch of any open note by one, two or three semitones when the valves were used one at a time, or by four, five or six semitones when the valves were used in combination. Before the invention of compensating valves (which could be used in combination without producing faulty intonation), lower-pitched instruments generally required extra valves in order to lower the pitch of an open note by more than three semitones. In 1859 Sax applied his system of six independent valves to the saxtuba.〔Haine (1980), p. 76.〕 The saxtubas made their first public appearance at the première of Fromental Halévy's opera ''Le Juif errant'' (''The Wandering Jew'') at the Paris Opéra on 23 April 1852. At the time, Sax was musical director of the Opéra's stage band (or ''banda''), so it was not unusual for instruments of his design to be showcased in popular productions. Although Sax appears to have designed the saxtuba as early as 1845, it is possible that he did not actually manufacture any specimens until they were required for ''Le Juif errant'' in 1852. In the opera, the saxtubas are first heard on stage in the Triumphal March (No. 17) at the end of Act III. A total of eight different sizes of saxtuba were required to play ten individual parts.〔A contemporary account mentions fifteen players in all, as some of the individual parts were played by two, three or four instrumentalists. See Bevan (1990), pp. 138 and 142; and Carter (1999), p. 144.〕 Curiously, the saxtubas are not referred to by this name in the only surviving copy of the full score; instead they are listed as saxhorns, which suggests that the decision to use saxtubas was a late one. In the score the instruments are designated as follows: The only other appearance of the stage band in the opera occurs in the ''Judgment dernier'' ("Last Judgment") in Act V, which also includes parts for four saxophones, one of which was played by Sax himself.〔Carter (1999), p. 145. Bevan (1990), pp. 138–139, calls the Triumphal March in the Act III finale "No. 12", and identifies the other appearance of the saxtuba ''banda'' as No. 17 in Act IV.〕 On both occasions the performers are instructed to march across the stage, playing martial music typical of the period as they do so. This music has been compared to the ''Apothéose'' from Berlioz's ''Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale'' of 1840. François-Joseph Fétis, who reviewed the opera's première, reported that the sound of the Sax's saxtuba ''banda'' was out of all proportion to that of the orchestra in the pit. At subsequent performances the instruments were muted, which resulted in a much better balance between the two bodies.〔Carter (1999), pp. 144 f.〕 ''Le Juif errant'' was not a success, despite being given fifty times over two seasons at the Paris Opéra;〔Carter (1999), p. 145.〕 when it disappeared from the repertoire, it took the saxtuba with it. The only other notable public appearance of the saxtubas occurred less than a month after the opera's première, on 10 May 1852, when twelve saxtubas participated in a military ceremony on the Champ de Mars, Paris, in which the President of the French Republic Louis Napoleon distributed the colours to his army. Although a total of 1500 musicians from thirty regiments were employed in the ceremony, the twelve saxtubas overwhelmed all the other instruments. According to an eyewitness the saxtubas were played by the same civilian players who had played them at the Opéra the previous month.〔Bevan (1990), p. 137; .〕 The existence of a few saxtubas from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century – including six specimens manufactured by Sax's son Adolphe-Edouard – suggests that the instrument did not become completely obsolete after the disappearance of ''Le Juif errant'' from the repertoire. Records preserved in the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra National de Paris indicate sporadic appearances of saxtubas of various sizes in operatic productions throughout the late nineteenth century, both as solo instruments in the pit and as theatrical instruments in the onstage ''banda''. Jules Massenet added a saxtuba to his pit orchestra in ''Le Roi de Lahore'' (1877);〔Carter (1999), p. 137. Haine (1980), p. 98, identifies this instrument as a contrabass saxhorn in B.〕 Charles Gounod used the same instrument in ''Le tribut de Zamora'' in 1881.〔Haine (1980), p. 98.〕 Massenet also wrote a solo for contrabass saxtuba in C in ''Esclarmonde'', which was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in 1889.〔Carter (1999), pp. 137–138.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saxtuba」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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