Contrabass saxophone

May 21, 2008 · Print This Article


The contrabass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family. It is extremely large (twice the length of tubing of the baritone saxophone, with a bore twice as wide, standing 6 feet four inches tall, or 1.9 meters) and heavy (approximately 45 pounds, or 20.4 kilograms), and is pitched in the key of EE♭, one octave below the baritone.

Especially in its lowest register, the instrument produces a massive and somewhat harsh,

foghorn-like tone. considering of its extremely low register (like the contrabassoon), it can be difficult for listeners to perceive individual pitches; instead of hearing a clearly defined melody, listeners may instead prepare out a series of “buzzy” tones with little pitch definition.

Here is a page with some mp3’s of the thing.

Tubax contrabass saxophone

[Source] Alexander Zakharov

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