Forums — Repertoire History
Help for a Student

Return to Forums Home | Return to Parent Topic — Repertoire History

Hello, All A music history student of mine is preparing a project on the use of saxophone in the orchestra. She has Berlioz's treatise supporting the saxophone in that setting, but would like other sources that help explain why our instrument never really made it in the orchestra. I have my opinions, as I'm sure you do, but can anybody point to some sources that reveal why the saxophone was (and is still to a great extent) considered a novelty instrument in the orchestra? If you don't have sources, I'd like to read your opinion! Considering that Berlioz was such a great advocate and popular composer at the time, why do you think the saxophone faded from use? Berlioz himself hardly used it! Thanks! Jay Miglia Otterbein College Columbus, Ohio

Fred Hemke "The Early History of the Saxophone" Richard Ingham, ed. "The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone" Michael Segell "The Devil's Horn" Three that will get her going. My personal opinion: There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pieces for the saxophone in an orchestral setting, many of which are excellent pieces. None is by Beethoven, or Mozart, or Haydn, or Mahler, or Wagner, or even Berlioz. Orchestras are primarily conservatories of common-practice-period repertory, and excellent composers who write for saxophone are generally not of that period or style. The pieces that do get played are masterworks. If orchestras survive this century, or the next couple of decades, perhaps more works using the saxophone will come into the standard repertoire of the orchestra. Good luck to you and your student.