about BSC SAXOPHONE
Dear saxophone players,
My name is Tomomi Kato. I have been researching the connection between technical construction and musical acoustics of the trumpet for over 32 years. I work together with important musicians in our time. I am trained in classical trumpet, but I deal with many styles of music.
For me it is very important not only to follow physics or technology, but also to follow history and development. Only when you understand the past can you develop real innovation.
The trumpet goes back to antiquity. Since against saxophone has a relatively young history since it was invented in 1840 by Monsieur Adolphe Sax. Did you know Monsieur Sax was born in Dinant about the middle of Brussels and Luxembourg?
The saxophone plays a
rather exotic role in classical music history. But why?
Serpent (1590), Basshorn (1780), Ophicleide (1817)
have a continuously conical bore with a larger diamete and steeper angles than
oboe, or post horn. They belong to the „bugle“ family and are played with a cup
mouthpiece. Here came the saxophone (1840) with clarinet´s single reed
mouthpiece.
Bugle instruments have their typical sound characteristics that differ from orchestral instruments. Mist-like abundance of saxophone is interpreted in French sensitivity and elegance. In contrast, opera and symphonic orchestras required more variability in sound, the greatest dynamic range and projection, which is characteristic of romantic music by Beethoven or Wagner.
In the development of 20th century music in the USA, the saxophone had a great career. Particularly in music with black populations, bebop and birth of cool jazz to funk, soul, pop, the saxophone is one of the most important wind instruments in modern music. The popularity of the electric guitar resulted in a new way of expression and sound ideal, which also strongly influenced saxophone playing. They have little in common with the original saxophone from Paris, they are powerful, brilliant, even screaming from the soul.
Unfortunately, most of the creative saxophone makers did not experience this rapid development of music any more. So it came about that most of the industry from Asia imitated bestsellers from the market at low cost. As a result, today's saxophonists are forced to choose something from the past.
I knew the situation in the saxophone world, besides collecting and analyzing some details of good old saxophones. When I discovered enough similarities between the brass winds and the saxophone, I started working professionally with the saxophone. Coincidentally I made some friends who were specialized in saxophone and woodwind instrument making at the highest level in Europe.
I already knew problems from the point of view of musical acoustics from frequent complaints from top saxophonists and experienced some trouble at concerts. Especially Alto has the biggest problem to enforce in “forte”, but to sound “piano” warm but present on the same stage because it has a small dynamic range and little variability in timbre.
I've seen a solution to orchestral instruments. Whether trumpet or clarinet, violin or vocals, what a musician needs on stage is the same. Transferring this sound character to the saxophone is my specialty and challenge!
In order to solve historical problems of the bugle family, I tried to eliminate all "leaks", losses of the player's energy. If the bell or porcelain plate has a crack, it cannot sound beautiful and loud. Such problems with musical instrument could be caused by the material, shape, mounting position, manufacturing method, etc. My experience about metal and acoustics from trumpet research helped a lot and discovered many parallel to the thesis.
My goal at BSC Saxophon is to solve "typical-bugle problems" and thus to offer all saxophonists an alternative that allows them to exceed the normal limits and to discover new possibilities for saxophone.
BSC saxophone can bundle a sound center, which is
weakly or completely absent with bugle. From the sound center, timbre
unfolds and spreads outwards. This creates an additional 3rd
dimension “the depth”. Bugle, on the other hand, spread the sound directly
around the player and fill their area. But the player hits the limit of the
maximum early on and suddenly the character of the sound tips into
non-musical noises.
With “Staccato” you can easily test the
properties of your instrument. If an instrument cannot create a clean round
"sound pearl" but a breaking noise predominates as a resonance, then it
carries some problems and they repel explosive energy from the player with
"staccato". The more energy you blow in, the more the problems are increased
and the musical tone becomes less.
Sound center gives good players a certain amount of support to be able to „knead“ sound. That is a proof of that in an instrument a resonance column is created like a cushion from uniform vibration. On the upholstery the player can change the tone color variably. The sound always remains presence and remains rich even in pianissimo when the resonance cushion is there.
Because BSC Saxophone converts player's energy into musical tone more efficiently, player feels easy to play. In previously difficult situations such as extreme low or high notes, players do not need to change their way of play. The sound character remains the same everywhere.
BSC saxophone has strong projection. You will not "drown" in the ensemble. The sound can also be heard well in piano. Audiences feel more space in their saxophone playing, sound can touch them as real as 3D movie. In the large concert hall, in the church or in the open air, you can reach the last row of your audience. Every single note is heard clearly and precisely instead of cloudy and blurred.
On noisy electrically amplified stage it is very difficult for sound engineers to pick up the tones of the saxophone, because the saxophone does not have only one sound output like brass instruments. But the intensive sound center can reach the microphone undisturbed because only a few instruments have such partials on stage. No matter bass or drums blow a lot back from the monitor, the saxophone retains its typical sound in its own frequency space. (You can hear baby screaming well despite the room is very loud.) At the same time, the notes find a harmony with vocals and the electric guitar, which have similar partials.
We have already solved some important puzzles and BSC Saxophone shows some skills that other saxophones do not have. Solving historical problems is my passion!
I see BSC Saxophone as
an „open source project“ focusing our interests solely and entirely on saxophone
and music. I want to produce a great instrument for the best price through
intelligent solutions!
My life mission is
To share “an instrument with a soul” with as many
people as possible.
Because a good musical instrument is timeless. If a
saxophone has been played for 100 years, the resources invested in it have paid
off many times over and made many audiences happy. If we all prefer "an
instrument with a soul", we can no longer give any space for other "junk
instruments" without a soul. In addition if we distribute more "saxophone with
soul" around the world, the young talents will have more chance to encounter
real musical instruments.
Please try BSC Saxophone and you will get my message and thought. Discuss with your colleagues and give us your wishes and suggestions! I and BSC Groupe will try to answer your "in put" with creative solutions.
Kind regards,
Tomomi Kato