Adolphe SAX i muzyka saksofonowa XIX wieku

Dariusz Samรณl

Sax

Adolphe

i muzyka saksofonowa XIX wieku

Krakรณw 2020

© Copyright by Dariusz Samól, 2020 Recenzenci: prof. Mieczysław Stachura prof. dr hab. Bogusław Rottermund prof. dr hab. Paweł Gusnar Opracowanie tekstu, skład i projekt okładki: Monika Kucab Grafika wykorzystana na okładce: pixabay.com ISBN 978-83-63072-19-3 ISBN 978-83-8095-833-3 Dofinansowano z budżetu Miasta Szczecin Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków na utrzymanie potencjału badawczego Kolegium Sztuk Muzycznych Akademii Sztuki w Szczecinie Autor i Wydawca dołożyli wszelkich starań, by dotrzeć do wszystkich właścicieli i dysponentów praw autorskich do ilustracji i zdjęć zamieszczonych w książce. Osoby, których nie udało nam się ustalić, prosimy o kontakt z Wydawcą lub Autorem Wydawnictwo Akademii Sztuki w Szczecinie pl. Orła Białego 2 70-562 Szczecin tel.: 664 080 223 Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls” 30-619 Kraków, ul. Turniejowa 59/5 tel./fax: (12) 422 41 80, 422 59 47, 506 624 220 www.impulsoficyna.com.pl, e-mail: impuls@impulsoficyna.com.pl Wydanie I, Kraków 2020

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Niniejsza monografia, poświęcona wybitnemu belgijskiemu konstruktorowi instrumentów muzycznych, wynalazcy saksofonu oraz innych instrumentów dętych jest jedyną w swoim rodzaju pozycją literatury naukowej i popularyzatorskiej pióra polskiego autora. Dzięki głęboko przemyślanej metodologii narracyjnej autor stworzył publikację spełniającą najwyższe standardy właściwe dla tego rodzaju piśmiennictwa.

Zakres podjętych przez niego badań obejmuje życie i twórcze dokonania Adolphe’a Saxa w koincydencji zdarzeń historycznych, ekonomicznych, wojskowych, socjologicznych, kulturowych występujących we Francji, Europie i USA. Opis podjętych przez niego dociekań badawczych jest bardzo rozległy, szczegółowy i wyczerpuje pełny zakres zagadnień, problemów i zdarzeń związanych z szerokim spektrum działalności Saxa.

Język, jakim posługuje się autor, jest klarowny, konkretny, jednoznaczny, sugestywny, a jednocześnie przystępny dla każdego czytelnika. Mocnym atutem tej książki jest fakt, iż pomimo jej naukowego charakteru, publikacja posiada również wartości popularyzatorsko-poznawcze. Dariusz Samól z wielkim znawstwem i przenikliwością zaprezentował postać człowieka niezwykle utalentowanego, o bardzo złożonej osobowości, niebywałym temperamencie, wielkiej fantazji i niepohamowanych ambicjach. Człowieka niezłomnego, zdeterminowanego w swej 5

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walce o zdobycie uznania społeczności, wśród której przyszło mu żyć i tworzyć. Adolphe Sax był wizjonerem z zakodowanym genem wynalazczości, czego rezultatem było skonstruowanie saksofonu, sakshornu, sakstuby oraz urządzeń i maszyn przemysłowych. Był przedsiębiorcą, menadżerem, multiinstrumentalistą, nauczycielem, wydawcą i organizatorem życia muzycznego. Posiadał przy tym rozległe koneksje w wysokich sferach francuskiego establishmentu oraz w środowisku paryskich kompozytorów.

W sposób niezwykle logiczny i uporządkowany zostały również przez autora przekazane informacje dotyczące losów najbliższej rodziny Adolphe’a Saxa.

Z opisów zamieszczonych w poszczególnych rozdziałach książki dowiadujemy się także o światowej ekspansji wiekopomnego wynalazku Saxa – saksofonu. Autor przedstawił diagramy najwybitniejszych kompozytorów tworzących literaturę saksofonową oraz saksofonistów, którzy w drugiej połowie XIX wieku wstępowali z koncertami saksofonowymi na najbardziej prestiżowych estradach Europy, USA oraz innych kontynentów. Książka Adolphe Sax i muzyka saksofonowa XIX wieku stanowi pozycję unikalną w polskim piśmiennictwie monograficznym i zasługuje na rozpowszechnienie jej w szerokich kręgach czytelniczych. prof. Mieczysław Stachura Akademia Muzyczna we Wrocławiu

Adoplhe Sax and Saxophone Music

in the 19th century A Summary

This publication aims to familiarise readers with the life and work of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, and with the history of saxophone music in the first decades after that instrument entered the music scene. Sax was one of those extraordinary personalities, persons of genius that the 19th century abounded in. It was an age when civilization gained momentum, producing those impulses that were later responsible for the acceleration, which characterised the following century. In the field of music instrument building, that era witnessed a veritable explosion of new ideas and improvements.

My intention has been to familiarise readers with a vast spectrum of phenomena and events that shaped the historical era in which Adolphe Sax lived and worked, in order to provide a background for his ground-breaking inventions, as well as for ideas that he never managed to put in practice and for ‘mere’ refinements in the existing instruments. I take my readers into the very centre of the dramatic events in which the great constructor was involved. He invented many instrument families and introduced a great number of improvements; still, it is the saxophone that has stood the test of time.

331

A Summary

The second topic of my publication is the beginnings of music for the saxophone. This subject has not yet been exhaustively studied and deserves a separate, larger monograph. Here I discuss this issue because of its direct connection with the early history of the development of Sax’s most important invention.

Adolphe Sax was not only a brilliant inventor and instrument builder. He was also a seasoned businessman and a member of the manufacturer class. His career depended on constructing new and experimenting with / constantly improving old instruments on the one hand, and on producing large batches of commissioned instruments as well as introducing innovations in the production process on the other. He dedicated a particularly large amount of energy and capital to the promotion of his own patents, which he obtained (and sometimes also later lost) for entire families of instruments: saxtubas, saxotrombas, saxhorns and saxophones. His efforts to popularise these inventions involved many forms of activity: specially organised concerts; new classes for young musicians at the military college; befriending composers and commissioning original pieces for the various instruments with them; publishing work, as well as lobbying of high-ranking army officers, government officials and aristocrats. In 1858 Sax established his own publishing house (which existed until 1878) for the purpose of disseminating music for his newly constructed instruments and promoting methods of teaching these instruments.

With the passage of time it turned out that while the saxtuba, saxotromba and modified trombones did not enter regular music practice and can now only very rarely be heard in concert, the saxhorn and saxophone have become exceedingly popular and common. Though Sax’s originality in inventing the saxhorn 332

A Summary

as a completely new instrument is still disputed in some circles, there have almost never been such doubts with regard to the originality of the saxophone. Admittedly, in the very beginning his rights as inventor were questioned by the Parisian Union of Instrument Manufacturers, but the court soon put an end to all doubts by confirming the originality of Sax’s patent. The saxophone quickly gained popularity, and thanks to the inventor’s efforts it became a regular component of military bands. Soon it also entered all brass bands in France and Belgium, as a regular part of their line-ups.

The event that largely contributed to the saxophone becoming part of France’s day-to-day music life was the opening of a military college class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1857. The class prepared recruits for military bands. Young saxophonists were educated there under the supervision of Sax himself. Unfortunately, in 1870 all the college students were enlisted and sent to the front of the French-Prussian war, which, though it lasted only one year, led to major political and economic transformations. The college’s saxophone class was not reopened, but the saxophone classes previously created in several other cities of France and Belgium survived and continued to produce young saxophonists.

The early saxophone virtuosi played an enormous role in the promotion of that instrument. Their playing gained the audience’ admiration and inspired many composers to write for the saxophone. The instrumentalists themselves also made significant contributions to the saxophone repertoire by writing and performing their own compositions. Most of them were Frenchmen and Belgians, but their work soon won acclaim also on the 333

A Summary

other side of the Atlantic and elsewhere, boosting the popularity of the instrument in the United States and worldwide.

In Paris itself, despite the lack of a saxophone class in the Paris Conservatoire, a group of enthusiasts – performers and composers – were greatly excited by the possibilities of the saxophone.

Their activity was supported by Adolphe Sax himself, who organised concerts and published new works. Several composers were his dedicated friends, and in collaboration with him they created the first sizeable collection of educational materials and of saxophone music, original or transcribed for that instrument.

Saxophone works were published by such Paris-based artists as Arban, Klose, Savari, Singelee, Demersseman and Jonas. These were solo pieces, mostly variations and fantasias, but also chamber music for duos, trios and larger ensembles (up to octets).

As I have already mentioned, Sax’s varied efforts bore fruit in the form of growing interest in the saxophone, also among some instrumentalists. Most of them were clarinettists, who abandoned their original instrument partly or completely and switched over to the saxophone: a Frenchman – Charles Jean Baptist Soualle, Belgians – Jean Moeremans, Louise Adolphe Mayeur and Henri Wuille, as well as a Dutchman – Edward Abraham Lefebre. They were the first saxophonists to gain widespread fame, and – in the course of their impressive careers – they became the pioneers of the saxophone in its early infant phase. Interestingly, they were active in their own countries only for a short time, and, though they performed and lived in many different parts of the world, most of them received the greatest acclaim in the United States, where they promoted the saxophone for many years, shaping the future for the instrument – simultaneously with Sax’s efforts in France. The artistic profiles of those 334

A Summary

musicians provide us with an insight into the successive stages of the development of saxophone music and of the instrument itself.

The solo saxophone works from that period are for the most part maintained in the then most fashionable operatic style. The main theme, borrowed from some well-known opera, was followed by a series of variations. Performed mostly with piano accompaniment, those works took the form of a concerto, fantasia or capriccio. The same period saw the emergence of the first chamber pieces for saxophone quartet or for larger ensembles that comprised all the types of saxophones. Many composers also began to include saxophone parts in their orchestral works.

To sum up, my book provides the Polish readers with knowledge about Adolphe Sax’s life and with some information about 19th-century music for the saxophone, which deserves being restored to modern repertoires.

Spis treści

Przedmowa

5

Wstęp

7

Wprowadzenie

17

Rozdział I • Rodzinne Dinant

25

Rozdział II • Charles Sax. Dinant – Bruksela – Paryż

37

Rozdział III • Adolphe Sax. Dzieciństwo i młodość

49

Rozdział IV • Paryż. Pierwsze sukcesy i zagrożenia

67

Rozdział V • Porażki i tryumfy

93

Rozdział VI • W labiryncie

129

Rozdział VII • W walce z chorobą i nieuczciwą konkurencją

151

Rozdział VIII • Schyłek działalności Adolphe’a Saxa Następne pokolenia

185

Spis treści

Rozdział IX • Saksofon Trwałe dziedzictwo Adolphe’a Saxa

201

Rozdział X • Pierwsi wirtuozi saksofonu Saksofon za oceanem

233

Rozdział XI • Pierwsi kompozytorzy piszący muzykę na saksofon

291

Zakończenie

323

Adolphe Sax and Saxophone Music in 19th century A summary

331

Lista kompozytorów XIX wieku piszących na saksofon solo i saksofonowe zespoły kameralne

337

Indeks nazwisk

341

Bilbiografia

357

Źródła ilustracji zamieszczonych w książce

369