Sidney Bechet, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Michael Brecker ~ famous names but I have not heard of them thus far !!
Cyrano
de Bergerac is a Parisian poet and swashbuckler with a large nose of which he
is self-conscious, but pretends to be proud. He is madly in love with his
cousin, the beautiful Roxane; however, he does not believe she will requite his
love because he considers himself physically unattractive, because of his
overly large nose. .. … .. plot ofCyrano de Bergerac a 1990 French comedy-drama film directed by
Jean-Paul Rappeneau and based on the 1897 play of the same name by Edmond
Rostand, adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière and Rappeneau.
In Oct 2019, death
occurred to this famous musician -Kadri
Gopalnath.The saxophone is famous for
its gruff, growling expression, and Kadri Gopalnath was among the pioneers who
tamed it to play the delicate graces of Carnatic classical music.Kadri (69), died in Mangaluru, came to the
Western instrument through the traditional Indian pipe, the nadaswaram, which
he had learnt from his father Taniyappa. For the young Kadri, the choice marked
a shift from the booming, nasal beauty of the nadaswaram to the bright
flamboyance of the saxophone. But the tone was all that changed. Kadri did not
switch to any Western genre; in fact, he continued to play traditional south
Indian music on an instrument he had picked up after first hearing it at the
Mysore palace.
Called a mangala vadya,
the nadaswaram is played in the southern states to mark auspicious occasions
such as weddings and temple festivals. Thanks to Kadri and some of his
illustrious predecessors, the saxophone is now part of the mangala vadya
ensemble in these parts. Over the last few decades, it has made inroads into
southern classical culture. The saxophone is now heard solo or alongside the
nadasawaram in temples and at weddings. Kadri Gopalnath’s most popular non-film
album, Raag Rang, belongs in the genre of what is loosely called fusion music. He
collaborated with flautist Pravin Godkhindi for the 2009 production, and no
one, including Pujar, the proprietor of Sagar Music who conceptualised it, had
a clue it would be such a wild hit. It was the era of CDs, and the main piece,
based on raga Malkauns, was inspired by two songs in the 1959 Hindi film
Navrang (Tu chupi hain kahan and Aadha hain chandrama). While Pravin played the
raga with a northern lilt, Kadri’s phrasing and improvisations represented a
corresponding southern raga, Hindola.
The album featured
talented Bengaluru musicians, such as Sangeeta Katti, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma,
Praveen Rao and Arun, and was played at restaurants across India and abroad,
and even on Air India flights. With Raag Rang, Kadri became India’s answer to
Kenny G, the best-selling American saxophonist heard across the world (critics
say he only makes “elevator music”). [reproduced from an interesting article in
tribute to Kadri in Deccan Herald]
The saxophone (referred to
colloquially as the sax) is a family of woodwind instruments usually made of
brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece. Although most saxophones are
made from brass, they are categorized as woodwind instruments, because sound is
produced by an oscillating reed (traditionally made out of woody cane) rather
than lips vibrating in a mouthpiece cup as with the brass instrument family. The saxophone is used in classical music.
Antoine-Joseph
"Adolphe" Sax (1814 – 1894) was a Belgian inventor
and musician who created the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in
1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the flute
and clarinet.
Adolphewas born Dinant, in what is now Belgium, to
Charles-Joseph Sax and his wife Marie-Joseph.Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age, entering two
of his flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of 15. He
subsequently studied performance on those two instruments as well as voice at
the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Sax faced many brushes with death in his
childhood including falling from a height of 3 floor, head hitting a stone,
drinking a bowl full of acidic water, injured in gunpowder explosion and the
like.After leaving the Royal Conservatory of
Brussels, Sax began to experiment with new instrument designs, while his
parents continued to make conventional instruments to bring in money. Adolphe's
first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design, which
he patented at the age of 24. Adolphe Sax also developed the saxotromba
family, valved brass instruments with narrower bore than the saxhorns, in 1845,
though they survived only briefly.
The use of saxhorns spread
rapidly. The saxhorn valves were accepted as state-of-the-art in their time and
remain largely unchanged today. The advances made by Adolphe Sax were soon
followed by the British brass band movement which exclusively adopted the
saxhorn family of instruments.Saxophone
was patented on 28 June
1846. The saxophone was invented for use in both orchestras and military
bands. By 1846 Sax had designed (on paper at least) a full range of saxophones
(from sopranino to subcontrabass). Composer Hector Berlioz wrote approvingly of
the new instrument in 1842, but despite his support, saxophones never became
standard orchestral instruments. However, their ability to play technical
passages easily like woodwinds and also project loudly like brass instruments
led them to be included in military bands in France and elsewhere. This helped
secure him a job teaching at the Paris Conservatory in 1857.
Sax continued to make instruments later in life and presided over the new saxophone program at the Paris Conservatory. Rival instrument makers both attacked the legitimacy of his patents and were sued by Sax for patent infringement. The legal back-and-forth continued for over 20 years. He was driven into bankruptcy three times: in 1852, 1873, and 1877. Sax suffered from lip cancer between 1853 and 1858 but made a full recovery. In 1894, Sax died in complete poverty and was interred in Paris.
Sad end to a brilliant inventor, musician !
PS : Many of you would have seen‘ Duet ’ released in 1994 directed by K. Balachander, starring Prabhu, Ramesh Aravind, Meenakshi Seshadri, and Prakash Raj. Duet's score was centred on the saxophone. This movie was inspired by the 1990 French comedy Cyrano de Bergerac
With regards – S. Sampathkumar 28.6.2020
