Mr. Sax's instrument and Ms. Perry's Quartet

Synopsis

The saxophone — whose flashing serpentine figure is now virtually synonymous with jazz clubs and wind bands — was the brainchild of woodwind craftsman Adolphe Sax, born in Belgium on this date in 1814, to a family of prominent instrument makers. Sax moved to Paris in his late 20s, where he proved himself a restless and prolific inventor of new instruments.

Yet only a few of these lived on, of which the saxophone is by far the most popular. John Philip Sousa’s band gave many audiences in this country their first taste of the saxophone, and its important role in jazz can hardly be overestimated — that’s a development that neither Sax nor Sousa could have foreseen.

In the symphonic repertory, saxophones are still just occasional visitors to the concert hall, but in the world of chamber music, saxophone quartets have become quite popular. In America alone there are dozens of professional saxophone quartets who commission and perform new works.

Take, for example, the Quartet for Saxophones by the Canadian composer Anita “A.D.” Perry, a work written for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet of Buffalo, New York. The Amherst Quartet has a 20-year history of commissioning and performing new music, and has recorded a number of CDs, include one of Perry’s quartet.

Music Played in Today's Program

Anita D. Perry (b. 1960): Quartet for Saxophones; Amherst Saxophone Quartet; innova 516

On This Day

Births

• 1814 - Belgian inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax, in Dinant. He invented the instrument around 1840, and was granted a 15-year patent in 1846.

• 1854 - American composer and bandmaster John Philip Sousa, in Washington, D.C.

• 1860 - Polish composer, piano virtuoso, and statesman, Ignace Jan Paderewski, in Russian Poland (Gregorian date: Nov. 18)

Deaths

• 1672 - German composer Heinrich Schütz, 87, in Dresden

• 1795 - Czech-born German opera composer Jiri Antonin (Georg Anton) Benda, 73, in Köstritz

• 1893 - Russian composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, 53, dies of cholera after drinking un-boiled water during an epidemic in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 25). Some speculate this was a deliberate and suicidal act.

• 1965 - Franco-American composer Edgard (or Edgar) Varèse, 81, in New York City

Premieres

• 1825 - Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15, in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The was the first public performance (The same players performed the work at a private performance two months earlier, on September 9, for an audience of fourteen at the Tavern Zum Wilden Mann in Vienna).

• 1891 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic ballad The Voyevode in Moscow (Gregorian date: Nov. 18)

• 1902 - Cilea: opera, Adriana Lecouvreur in Milan at the Teatro Lirico;

• 1913 - Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra, in Paris

• 1924 - Janácek: opera The Cunning Little Vixen, in Brno at the National Theater;

• 1935 - first complete performance of Walton: Symphony No. 1, by the BBC Symphony, Sir Hamilton Harty conducting. Harty had conducted the premiere performance of this work’s first three movements (the fourth and final movement had not yet been written) on a London Philharmonic concert of Dec. 3, 1934.

• 1936 - Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1940 - Florence Price: Symphony No. 3, in Detroit, by the Michigan WPA Symphony, Valter Poole conducting. Also on the program was Price’s Piano Concerto (which had premiered earlier in Chicago) with the composer as soloist. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended a rehearsal for this concert, and wrote favorably about Price’s Symphony in her national newspaper column “My Day” for November 14, 1940.

• 1943 - Orff: Catulli Carmina, in Leipzig at the Städische Bühnen

• 1950 - Copland: Clarinet Concerto, on an NBC Symphony broadcast conducted by Fritz Reiner, with Benny Goodman as soloist

• 1953 - Nikolaus Nakokov: Cello Concerto (Les Hommages), with Lorne Munroe, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting

• 1976 - Andrew Imbrie: opera Angle of Repose, in San Francisco

• 1999 - Elisabetta Brusa: Adagio for strings, by the Virtuosi of Toronto, Fabio Mastrangelo conducting

• 2004 - Augusta Read Thomas: Brass Rush for brass band, by the Illinois Brass Band at the U.S. Open Brass Band Competition in Arlignton Heights, Illinois

Others

• 1717 - J.S. Bach temporarily imprisoned by his employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, who was upset that Bach had taken another post (with Prince Leopold of Coethen) without first securing the Duke’s permission to do so