photography © Jos Knaepen |
The Aulochrome
|
The idea behind the development of the Aulochrome – on September 10, 2001 – and its completion in 2002 is the fact, that you can play only one note at a time on the saxophone. The instrument maker Francois Louis designed the polyphonic “saxophone” in his factory near Hannuts/Belgium – the Aulochrome was born.
This name is composed of “aulos”, a Greek pipe consisting of two idenical pieces – and “chrome” for cromatic and coloured.
The Aulochrome is virtually made up of two soprano saxes (down to low a). In combination with a completely redesigned mechanism it is now possible to play these two “soprano saxes” together or separately. So the Aulochrome can be played chromaticly from the lowest note of one instrument to the highest note of the other one. This will result in totally new possibilities.
The mouthpiece in principle consistsof two ordinary mouthpieces connected to each other while being fitted to the needs of the Aulochrome. As an example the chambers are different to get a variety of harmonic facilities. In addition to that a new ligature was designed for an optimal fixation of both reeds.
|
Playing two saxophones concurrently used to be inconvenient and difficult as two entire saxes had to be held, played and controlled. This challenge has been simplified by the development of the Aulochrome. Indeed, there were players like Rashaan Roland Kirk standing on the stage with two or even more saxophones and being able to play them together very well. As to be seen on the picture this is not only a question of ability but also a question of physical strength. Here it is three fully-fledged saxes to be trudged. However, the Aulochromehas been optimized to be only little heavier than a standard soprano.
|
The Aulochrome, like many other inventions, is not as new as it seems to be. Already in 1961 George Braith had a similar idea and engineered the “Braithophone” composed of a soprano and an alto – not two sopranos as stated in some publications. So Braith kept two different saxes while the Aulochrome employs two identical sopranos.
The Aulochrome which has a very young history, was presented on October 26, 2002 in “O. Messiaen Hall” in Paris for the first time. They played "Fanfare III" for Aulochrome and orchestra by Philippe Boesmans. Fabrizzio Cassol was the soloist, accompanied by Philharmonie Freiburg.
A Video with Francois Louis with the Aulochrome in use can be found here: http://www.joelovano.com/bigben.htm
I want to thank Francoise Louis a lot for his help and admission to use his fotos. For further information visit www.aulochrome.com, there you can also find pictures of the mechanism and the application.
Last Updated on Monday, 07 September 2009 09:27
