[Dixielandjazz] Sarrusophones

[jobriant at sunrisetelecom.com]

Tom Wiggins wrote:

> Perhaps that lovely instrument (the Sarrusophone) was 
> just unfortunately missmatched with a bunch of other 
> more well known and exposed OKOM instruments that 
> have been over tuned for mellowness and sweetness. :))    

Well, the Cornets and especially the Double-Belled Euphoniums are certainly more mellow than the Sarrusophone.

But we weren't hearing this Sarrusophone as it was intended.  Pete played it with a single-reed mouthpiece, as do a number of other contemporary Sarrusophone players. I'm guessing that his instrument is either a Bb Bass or Eb Contrabass Sarrusophone, but that's just a guess.

But as invented, the Sarrusophone used a double reed.  Here's some additional information, adapted from the International Double Reed Society web page:

The Sarrusophone was invented in 1856 by Monsieur Sarrus, a band leader for the French 13th Regiment of the line. M. Sarrus The French patent was awarded June 9, 1856 and gave manufacturing rights to the firm of P. L. Gautrot in Paris. The Sarrusophone was intended primarily for use in the marching band, to replace bassoons and oboes -- which are difficult to play when marching and can't be heard very well outdoors anyway. 

The Sarrusophone fingering system is suspiciously like that of the saxophone. 

And like the Saxophone, the Sarrusophone came in a family of several instruments of differing sizes and pitches:

Eb Sopranino
Bb Soprano
Eb Alto
Bb Tenor
Eb Baritone
Bb Bass
Eb Contrabass
C  Contrabass
Bb Contrabass

These similarities did not go unnoticed by M. Adolph Sax, who sued Sarrus for patent infringement. Sax lost.

Gautrot in Paris and C.G. Conn in the USA had manufacturing rights.  Conn made about 200 Eb Contrabass Sarrusophones between 1914 and the early 1920's.  To enable single-reed instrumentalists to play the Sarrusophone, both companies also made a single-reed mouthpiece for it, similar in shape and size to a soprano Saxophone mouthpiece.

Apparently Sidney Bechet also played Sarrusophone, and made some jazz recordings on one or another member of this instrument family.  I'd never heard of these before (much less heard them), but I'd venture a guess that he had a Bb Soprano Sarrusophone; the fingerings would have been similar to his Bb Soprano Saxophone.

In another message, Bill Gunter wrote:

> If you took all the ugly noises in the universe and 
> rolled them into one it would still not sound as bad 
> as a sarousaphone [sic]. Pete could put the ax down 
> and make armpit farts and get a more beautiful sound 
> than that ugly, miserable excuse for a "musical" 
> instrument. It truly is an instrument for people 
> with "tin ears" or perhaps a death wish. 

Some C.G. Conn advertising literature took a different tack:  

"Although comparatively new in this hemisphere, the Sarrusophone as produced by Conn has already established itself in America. and its popularity is assured."

However, the IDRS concludes its Sarrusophone article with a statement that seems to agree more with Bill:

"The brief popularity and rapid decline of the Sarrusophone is perhaps, as Heinz Becker has pointed out, an argument for the hypothesis that the lifespan of an instrument depends more on its tone quality than its technical quality."

I would agree with that, but not too loudly, as someone is likely to bring up the fact that I own and play an Ophicleide.

Jim O'Briant
Tuba (& Ophicleide & other stuff)
Gilroy, CA