First up – 8th September – 6.30pm – 33 Hampstead Lane.
From the aulos to the oboe, the lyre to the concert harp – with Melinda Maxwell and Hugh Webb
Melinda and Hugh will take us on a musical journey starting with Marin Marais in the early 18th century, and moving on to Debussy, Ravel, John Dowland inspired Birtwistle, and new pieces written for them by for Morgan Hayes – culminating in an exploration of the music of the aulos and the lyre.
Only 4 tickets left… Book here.
Then… 30th September – 6.30pm Hampstead Lane
Good Evening Mr Sax with Gerard McChrystal and William Godfree
Together William and Gerard will present a history of the saxophone from its invention in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax – featuring original music written for the saxophone in the 1850s right through to William’s ‘Ballad in Blue’. Stopping in the US during the 1920’s for saxophone vaudeville star Rudy Weideoft’s witty pieces like Sax-O-Phun and Deep Purple.
Book here for Good Evening Mr Sax
Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Belgium in 1814, the eldest son of Charles-Joseph Sax, builder of instruments and owner of a factory for wind instruments. An inventor at heart, Adolphe was experimenting with the bass clarinet in early 1830s seeking to create an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and the agility of a woodwind. (Although the saxophone looks as though it belongs in a brass band it is in fact a woodwind, played with a reed).
At the Brussels Industrial Exposition of 1840, Sax presented no less than 9 new instruments including a saxophone, an organ, a piano-tuning process, and a sound reflection screen. Then, following the 1841 Exposition he was invited to move to Paris to provide the French army with better instruments. In 1846, supported by rave reviews for his saxophones from Hector Berlioz, Sax applied for and received a 15-year patent for his instrument which then won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition Industriel in 1849. His atelier went on to sell approximately 20,000 saxophones over the next 15 years – although his sales did not prevent a series of subsequent bankruptcies – in 1852, 73 and 77.
In the late 19th century the saxophone was widely used for military music and experimentally in orchestral scores. But it never came into widespread use and interest in it as a classical instrument waned.
But during this same period it began to be promoted in the United States, largely through the efforts of Patrick Gilmore, bandleader for the 22nd Regiment of the New York State National Guard, and Edward A. Lefebre, a Dutch émigré and saxophonist who had family business associations with Adolphe Sax. It was its early use in vaudeville and ragtime bands around the turn of the century that laid the groundwork for its subsequent use in dance orchestras and to its eventual blossoming in the ’20s and ’30s jazz age and way beyond.
Back in the classical world, in the 20th and 21st centuries the saxophone has found its way into symphony orchestras, choral music and even opera. Musical theatre scores also often include parts for saxophone, sometimes doubling another woodwind or brass instrument.
Book here for Good Evening Mr Sax
And moving on into October…..
Sunday 4th October – Highgate Society Lunchtime concert with jazz singer songwriter, Immy Churchill.
Go here for more details and to book.
Tuesday 27th October – Hampstead Lane
The Voices of San Lazzaro with Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti
Songs by Orlando di Lasso, Settimia Caccini, Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi and Tarquinio Merula will intertwine with Armenian traditional songs and melodies.
Leave a Reply