oh. oh. i have something. ok. are you readY?
music for the Eb alto saxophone is written a major sixth above the actual sound. now, music for the Bb tenor saxophone is written one octave plus a major second above the actual sound. music for the Eb baritone sax is written one octave plus a major sixth above the actual sound.
now, somebody write something witty about this. i already know it's terribly interesting. no takers? must i think? hmmm. well, ok. i used this finale 2007 and was typing a song into it - and then wanted to transpose it. what does it do? it moves it an octave higher? i think 'what the heck?' i didn't tell it to do that! then, i realize there's this question right before you transpose asking if you want it higher or lower. i think i accidentally had it on some key before that was tricking the computer into thinking that an octave higher would be the next key change. anyways - i fudged with the higher/lower thing - and finally got it right.
Well, you did ask - and what I have to say about it is not, I fear, likely to be witty even if it may possibly be instructive to all those who do not want so to be instructed.
You are correct, of course, in what you say about the transposition arrangements for the three members of the sax family that you mention, but what you wrote was far from complete (not that I am at all criticising you for this).
OK - so, it's time for a little sax education.
All members of the saxophone family are pitched either in B flat or E flat. The "standard" members of the family are the alto (in E flat), tenor (in B flat) and baritone (in E flat), as you correctly state. There are others outside this, however and all those above the alto are into straight sax - i.e. consist of a straight piece of tubing (facing forwards when trhe instrument is played), unlike the so-called "standard" members, each of whom sports a traditionally recognised saxophone shape (with a main tube facing more or less downwards and an upturned bell at the end, abit like the bass clarinet); these are, in upward order of pitch range, the soprano sax (in B flat), the much less used sopranino sax (in E flat) and the almost never used soprillo (in B flat - sounds like a cigar, does it not?!). Of these, only the soprano has ever really had any significant use in big band jazz. Going down, beneath the baritone there is the bass (in B flat) and the contrabass (in E flat), of the latter of which only a very few have ever been manufactured; only the bass sax has ever had any real used in big band jazz and even then only fairly sporadically. The biggest problem with the contrabass sax (apart from sheer rarity!) is its inability to deal easily with florid passage-work; it may be partly due to this fact and partly due to the additional problem of its physically unwieldy nature (try taking one of them on a plane in economy!) that the tubax was recently invented. The tubax has the same range as the contrabass sax but has an appearance rather more like that of a metal contrabassoon, with its tubing bent back upon itself; it also has the advantage over the contrabass sax that access to its keys is easier, the keys themselves are mostly smaller (making them easier to depress) and - perhaps most importantly of all from the player's standpoint - it is designed to take a standard baritone sax mouthpiece, so a player does not have to feel such a need to be quite so big-mouthed as does a contrabass sax player (and the thing fits into a far more practical-sized case). All these advantages mean that the tubax is capable of more florid passage-work in the hands of an adept player; the disadvantage (to the extent that it is one at all) is that, its tubing bore being smaller than that of the contrabass sax, its tone is somewhat less rich than that of its taller, bigger and less physically practical second-cousin-half-removed (try lisening to Scott Robinson playing the odd solo on the contrabass sax and you'll likely perceive what I mean about the astonishingly rich, creamy tone of the true contrabass sax).
There is now actually both a sub-contrabass sax and an equivalent-range tubax, both pitched in B flat, although the likely use of either seems open the the gravest doubt and they are each as rare as a perfect oboe reed; the lowest sounding note on each is the A flat a tone below the lowest note on the contrabassoon (i.e. the A flat a semitone below the lowest A on the standard 88-note piano keyboard).
It is perhaps also worth noting that the contrabass clarinet in B flat (pitched an octave below the bass clarinet in B flat and two octaves below the standard clarinet in B flat) is, like the bass clarinet, similar in shape to the bass clarinet with the sax-like upturned bell, although those "ends" of the bass and contrabass clarinet are somewhat smaller than those of the equivalent pitched members of the sax family. The bass clarinet's range is almost analogous to that of the baritione sax and that of the contrabass clarinet almost analogoue to that of the contrabass sax and tubax.
I had something of a preoccupation with all this a while ago when working at a piece called Concerto for 22 Instruments, of which all are wind instruments and almost all are different from one another (the only real duplication being in the three members of the flute section where one plays only piccolo, the second plays flute doubling piccolo and the third plays alto flute doubling flute); I use four different sizes of clarinet (piccolo in E flat, standard in B flat, bass and contrabass) as well as four members of the sax family (soprano in B flat, alto in E flat, baritone in E flat and contrabass or tubax [subject to the player's choice] in E flat.
Anyway, to return to the sub-subject of the thread, the music for all saxes is customarily written at the same pitch range, i.e. from the B flat immeditely below middle C to the F two octaves and a perfect fifth above this - and the tradition in clarinet writing has been largely the same. Being the lazy / practical sod that I am, I wrote all instruments at sounding pitch in the full score of my concerto except the piccolo/s (written, as usual, an octave below sounding pitch) and the contrabassoon (written, as usual, an octave above sounding pitch).
OK - end of lecture; now - hands up anyone daft enought to have been remotely interested in reading beyond the first sentence! Now, hands up all those who got bored immediately and instead went off to have sax...
OK - now WILL SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING INTERESTING?...
Best,
Alistair
Topic: Will someone say something interesting?