|
Saving a musical sound from extinction
Appeared in THE BOSTON GLOBE - July 15, 2004
By Jonathan Bloom, Globe Correspondent
LEXINGTON -- It looks like a gilded bathroom drain with a mouthpiece. The metalwork is very saxophone-like, while the double reed and upward-facing bell are all bassoon.
The instrument is sarrusophone, which may sound like something from a Dr. Seuss book, but is actually a 19th-century French crossbreeding of the saxophone and the bassoon.
And the proud owner on a recent summer evening at the Levi Burnell Bandstand in Lexington's Hastings Park was Nathaniel Hefferman, one of a rare breed of sarrussophone players.
Just how rare is the sarrusophone? According to Berklee College of Music professor Tom Plsek, very. "The sarrusophone -- my God, you don't hear that every day. I don't know that I've ever seen one. In fact, I'm not even sure what it looks like -- that's how rare it is," Plsek said.
"It's pretty safe to say that [Hefferman's is] the only one in Massachusetts and possibly the only one in New England. You'd probably have to go to New York City to find one," said Plsek.
During the summer, Hefferman plays his sarrusophone on Tuesdays in the Lexington Bicentennial Band and Thursdays in the Concord Band.
After receiving the restored 1890s-era instrument in June, he was playing onstage only a few weeks later. It helped that the fingering is similar to a saxophone, Hefferman's first instrument. But he must be a quick study: As a full-time house-dad, Hefferman has to sneak practice between the naps of his 2-year-old son, Owen.
"It's taken a bit of practice. Like any new instrument, it takes some getting used to. It has a different feel and sound," says Hefferman, 39.
The sarrusophone was the work of French inventor Pierre-Louis Gautrot, who got the idea from Pierre Sarrus, a French army band conductor. Sarrus's vision was to create a louder instrument to replace the bassoon and oboe in military bands. Gautrot created the hybrid and received a patent in 1856. The instrument wasn't too popular and was even less so with saxophone inventor Adolph Sax. Sax, a German citizen, sued Gautrot several times for infringement.
Lexington Bicentennial Band's music director, Jeff Leonard, was excited when he heard about the acquisition by Hefferman, who uses the sarrusophone to play parts written for the bassoon.
"It's very similar to a bassoon sound, but it has a brighter, brasher sound," said Leonard. "It doesn't get out of hand, though. Frankly, the bassoon could use some help being heard, especially outdoors."
A self-confessed "band geek," Hefferman grew up playing the sax in Bellingham and majored in music at Ithaca College. After graduating in 1987, though, he largely left music behind. Although his wife, Roberta Carlton, also had attended Ithaca, they got to know each other years later when Hefferman was working in customer service at a division of State Street Bank. These days, Carlton is vice president at Lexington's SparkSource Inc., a high-tech PR agency, while Hefferman concentrates on Owen and Liam, 7, with a minor in music. He joined the Lexington band three years ago and recently joined the Concord Band, both of which play year-round.
Hefferman found his baritone E-flat sarrusophone in France. Even in this eBay era, it took almost two years for Hefferman to find one. After a search that included many Internet hours and phone calls, Hefferman secured his vintage reconditioned prize from France via a San Francisco antique instrument dealer. It cost him $9,500.
"It definitely took a while. I was always checking eBay and some online music sites. Most people have their Web fetishes; mine was trying to find a 19th-century instrument," said Hefferman.
At last week's concert in Lexington's Hastings Park, Hefferman arrived with his instrument wrapped like a baby in a green blanket. (A custom-made case is on its way.) His wife and their sons set up camp to the left of the bandstand.
The crowd of more than 200 people was a mix of elderly couples listening intently, young parents with hummus dip and white wine, and kids who swarmed around the periphery.
Before the third number, conductor Leonard instructed the audience to listen for Hefferman and his sarrusophone during a particular section. "This song features an instrument you don't hear very often -- the E-flat baritone sarrusophone," said Leonard. "I'm not making this up; that's what it's really called."
What do Hefferman's band mates think of his new instrument? "The general reaction in the band was, 'What the heck is that?' " said Joe Raczek, a tenor saxophone player and band member for the last three years. "Many of us hadn't seen one before. Half thought it was an instrument and half thought, 'With that name, it was an extinct dinosaur.' "
Although it's not a dinosaur, the instrument is largely extinct. The saxophone, invented only shortly before the sarrusophone, had many offshoots. According to Plsek, the sarrusophone was one of those saxophone mutations that never made it and have nearly vanished.
"There's a reason why it never caught on," said Berklee's Plsek. "It's like that three-wheeled car, the Dymaxion -- it's not only rare; it's weird."
|