At 18:11 12.3.2005 +0000, Denis BélièreshyZXM= wrote:

> I learned about it when I was a child, reading in an old music
>book, dated 1895: "The only used in orchestra is the contrabass ... to
>replace contrabassoon, with large avantages."

Indeed! Recently I gave a lecture on woodwinds in the series "Analysis of
orchestral music". I played to the students an example of contrabassoon
with the note that in my opinion, the sound quality is generally inferior,
and this instrument is hardly of any use for a composer. Then I told them
about sarrusophones, and that some early 20th century composers with
above-the-average insight on orchestration substituted the unusable
contrabassoon with the sarrusophone. After that I played them the clip
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Grant Green (hopefully he will not sue me for
copyright infringement). The contrast to the double bassoon was so striking
that the students were completely sold.

For now, I have at hand three scores in which a sarrusophone is indicated,
i.e. Ravel, Rapsodie espagnole; Dukas, L'apprenti sorcier; Delius, The Song
of the High Hills.

Btw, has anyone ever seen the score of Paderewski's Polonia Symphony (in
which there are three sarrusophones - I bought the CD some time ago, and
the sarrusophones certainly stand out, even though the composer could have
written with more delicacy)?


Regards,


Jopi Harri, Turku, Finland
(lecturer of musicology)