Sarrusophone

(Fr. sarrussophone; It. sarrusofono).

A brass instrument of conical bore, played with a double reed. The complete family comprises the sopranino in E, soprano in B, alto (mezzo-soprano) in E, tenor in B, baritone in E, bass in B, and contrabasses in E, C, and B. All have a compass from a whole tone below the pitch note to a major 6th above its double octave. They are transposing instruments, and are all notated in the treble clef, with the exception of the contrabass in C, which is notated in the bass clef sounding an octave lower (like the contrabassoon). The tube of all but the two smallest sizes is bent back upon itself (on the bass and contrabass three times) to reduce it to a convenient length. The soprano in B stands 72 cm tall, the contrabass in B 132 cm. The reeds resemble those for bassoon, varying in size according to each instrument's pitch; that of the contrabass has blades over 4 cm long and 2·5 cm wide across the tip. Their tone, which is penetrating when the instrument is played forte, may be described as somewhat like that of a reedy saxophone. The 19th-century vogue for creating double-reed instruments made of metal also led to the development of the reed contrabass (a 16'-register instrument) and the Rothophone.

The sarrusophone was developed by the leading Paris workshop Gautrot aîné; the bass ‘sarrusophone chromatique’ in B was patented in 1856 by Pierre Louis Gautrot, ten years after his rival Adolphe Sax had patented his family of saxophones. Sax's apologist Pontécoulant (Organographie, 1861) commented that ‘Gautrot, cherchant à contrebalancer le succès et la vogue du “Saxophone”, imagina d'en produire une grossière imitation sous le nom de “Sarrusophone”’. In his 1867 catalogue Gautrot claimed to have ‘invented them to replace par la nature de leur timbre the discarded military band double reeds, and to have named them after the bandmaster [Pierre Auguste Sarrus] who had given him the idea’. Since Sarrus (1813–76) was himself an inventor and patentee, and Gautrot, although nominally the titular owner of over 40 patents, was primarily a businessman rather than a maker, the identity of the actual inventor remains uncertain. The bore and shape of the larger models closely resembles that of the ophicleide, to which Gautrot had already in 1847 patented improvements. Though introduced in 1864 at Bayonne, it was at the Paris Exposition of 1867 that the entire family of nine sarrusophones was first officially shown. They were described as being easy to play, comfortably compact for marching use and, by the use of harder reeds, capable of delivering a greater puissance de son than their woodwind counterparts; Gounod composed a Choral et musette for sarrusophone sextet for the occasion.

The similarities between the sarrusophone and saxophone being too close for his liking, Sax unsuccessfully sued Gautrot for patent infringement. It is reported that Sax subsequently used his influence with the military authorities in order to prejudice them against giving the sarrusophone a fair trail in army bands, where the instrument failed to become properly established. However, the contrabass model was duly employed in operas by such French composers as Saint-Saëns (Les noces de Prométhée, 1867) and Massenet (Esclarmonde, 1889). Widor praised its rich, full tone in the hands of a competent player. Writing in Paris in 1904, he reported that the recently improved model in C had been adopted by both opera houses and by the main orchestras ‘and was beginning to appear everywhere’: it possessed distinct advantages over the double bassoon, being as flexible and supple over the entire register as either the oboe or english horn. In spite of the introduction in 1906 by Evette & Schaeffer (who had taken over Buffet-Crampon) of a French model of contrabassoon based on that of Heckel, the contrabass sarrusophone continued to be used by such composers as Dukas (L'apprenti sorcier, 1897), Ravel (Rapsodie espagnole, 1907–8, and L'heure espagnole, 1907–9), Boito (Nerone, first performed 1924), Delius and Lili Boulanger. Paderewski's Polonia Symphony op.24 (1907) called for no fewer than three. While for most of these scores the more common E model suffices, the lower and less-used model in C is occasionally required.

In response to these demands, Evette & Schaeffer commenced from 1903 the production of all six models ‘à mécanisme perfectionné’. Their sales figures reveal that, of the 115 sarrusophones built between 1903 and 1926, it was the E contrabass model that prevailed. In 1920 they supplied a complete set to the US army. The following year C.G. Conn Ltd was awarded a government contract for 148 contrabass sarrusophones and they continued to make them until World War II. In order to facilitate its use, an alternative clarinet-type mouthpiece was also marketed by Conn and Gautrot's successor Couesnon (an idea which Sax had already patented in 1866). Other makers have Cabart (France), Laviña (Spain), and Rampone and Rancilio (Italy).

There is evidence that the entire sarrusophone family was used in French, Italian, and Spanish bands. Grainger scored for sopranino and tenor in Hill-Song no.1 (1901–2) and Holbrooke for alto and contrabass in Apollo and the Seaman (1907). The contrabass has found employment in jazz (the Paul Whiteman orchestra, and a 1924 recording by Sidney Bechet), and more recently in film. Stravinsky included the instrument in his score of Threni (1958). Current manufacturers of the sarrusophone are Orsi of Milan, who offer all six models (fig.2), and Schenkelaars & Brekoo of Eindhoven (contrabass only).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG2 (‘Doppelrohrblattinstrumente’, §A, VI, 4; A. Masel)

Waterhouse-LangwillI

Catalogue des instruments de'musique de la manufacture générale de Gautrot aîné et Cie à Paris (Rennes, 1867)

C. Pierre: La facture instrumentale à l'Exposition universelle de 1889 (Paris, 1890)

C.-M. Widor: Technique de l'orchestre moderne (Paris, 1904, enlarged 5/1925; Eng. trans., 1906, rev. 2/1946) [suppl. to H. Berlioz: Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration]

R. Leruste: ‘Le sarrusophone’, EMDC, II/iii (1927), 1665–73

L. Langwill: The Bassoon and Contrabassoon (London, 1965)

M. Jolivet and R. Richardt: ‘The Sarrusophone’, Double Reed, viii/2 (1985), 42–5

G. Joppig: ‘Sarrusophone, Rothphone (Saxorusophone) and Reed Contrabass’, JAMIS, xii (1986), 68–106

G.A. Conrey: ‘The Sarrusophone: an Update’, Double Reed, x/3 (1987), 35–6, Journal of the International Double Reed Society, xvii (1989), 62–6

T. Kiefer: ‘Anmerkungen zur Produktion von Sarrusophonen bei der Firma Buffet-Crampon: ein Beitrag zur Baugeschichte dieser Instrumentengattung’, Tibia, xv (1990), 112–20

P. Rehfeldt: ‘The E Contrabass Sarrusophone in America: a Present Day Perspective’, International Double Reed Society Journal, xix (1991), 35–41

D.J. BLAIKLEY/ANTHONY C. BAINES/WILLIAM WATERHOUSE