Singing saw
The singing saw is a musical instrument in which a wide steel saw ( foxtail ) is stroked with a violin bow .
Instrument and playing technique
With the Singing Saw, the pitch is changed by bending the saw blade. Successive notes are linked by a more or less perceptible glissando . The oscillation of the respective tone comes close to a sine tone . The sound is reminiscent of the human soprano or a high- pitched whistle .
The pitch is determined by the width of the sheet measured at the vibrating point. This in turn is defined by bending the saw into an S-shape, the straight part between the two S-curves being identical to the swinging part. The shape of the foxtail (narrow on one side, wide at the handle) enables different pitches.
The pitch range of most music saws is 2–2½ octaves, the French "Lame Sonore" (traditionally without teeth) z. T. 3½ octaves. The lowest note on a (large) music saw is approx. C '. the highest note on the (French) saw approx. f '' ''. Whether large / deep saws or smaller / higher saws are played depends on the personal preference of the instrumentalist. Some conventional craft saws can also be used to make music, but their pitch range is limited to about 1–1½ octaves and, due to the small blade, only covers a very high pitch range.
Since bending the saw blade means a lot of effort for the hand or thumb, many - especially professional - saw players prefer a lever at the top of the saw blade. The lever is clamped, screwed or inserted. The vibrato is traditionally produced with a trembling leg. Some modern players prefer vibrato using the lever. Flageolet tones can also be played as a further sound option . These are caused by a slightly stronger curve and the painting of other points on the saw blade. These notes can also be played at the same time as basic notes, so that polyphony is created.
An alternative playing technique is to make the steel blade sound with a mallet .
Historical
The origin of the instrument is unclear, but it is believed that the playing technique was developed independently in several regions, including Scandinavia and South America.
The actor and comedian Leon Weaver, part of the "Weaver Brothers", learned the singing saw in 1902 and brought the instrument to a vaudeville stage for the first time in 1919 . Both brothers successfully toured the US and Europe with their show.
In the 1920s and 1930s the singing saw was a fashion instrument and was used in skiffle bands in the USA and in many salon orchestras and sometimes in films in Europe .
Marlene Dietrich is probably the best-known saw player to date. She learned to play the Singing Saw from the Bavarian actor Igo Sym in 1927 when she was shooting the film Café Electric in Vienna . During breaks in filming and at the weekend, the two performed romantic duets - he at the piano, she at the singing saw. Sym gave Dietrich his singing saw as a goodbye. The following words are engraved: "Now Suidy is gone / the sun d'ont [sic!] / Shine… / Igo / Vienna 1927". She took the saw to Hollywood and played at parties there. At that time she had the reputation of being the "First Lady" on the Singing Saw. When she took part in the USO shows for the American troops during World War II, she always had the saw with her.
The singing saw in contemporary music
Contemporary composers have been writing for the Singing Saw since the 1920s. The first was probably Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich . He used the instrument u. a. in the film music for Das neue Babylon (1929), in Die Nase (1928) and in Lady Macbeth von Mtsensk (Opera, 1934).
Shostakovich and other composers of his time used the term "flexaton" for singing saw. “Flexaton” simply means “to bend a tone”, with the singing saw the pitch is changed by bending the saw blade. Since this term is also used for an instrument called the flexaton , confusion has arisen for a long time. Parts that had actually been written for the Singing Saw were tried to be played on the flexaton instrument. Usually the clinking clapper noise of the flexatons disturbs the character of the music considerably.
Aram Chatschaturjan , who knew Shostakovich's music, used the singing saw in his piano concerto (1936) in the second lyric movement. Ernst Krenek used them in his jazz opera Jonny plays to characterize the skiffle jazz bands in Harlem as authentically as possible .
Another composer was the Swiss Arthur Honegger , who wrote a voice for Singing Saw in his short opera Antigone (1924). The Romanian composer George Enescu used the singing saw in his opera Oedipe (1931) at the end of the second act. It continues an ascending glissando by the mezzo-soprano to symbolize the ascension of the Sphinx, killed by Oedipus.
Giacinto Scelsi , Italian composer, wrote a part for Singing Saw in his quarter-tone piece Quattro pezzi su una sola nota (1959). The German composer Hans Werner Henze used the singing saw to characterize the evil hero in his opera Elegy for Young Lovers (1961). Other composers were Krzysztof Penderecki with Fluorescences (1961), De natura sonoris No. 2 (1971) and the opera Ubu Rex (1990), Bernd Alois Zimmermann with Stille und Umkehr (1970), George Crumb with Ancient voices of children (1970) , John Corigliano with The Mannheim Rocket (2001). Chaya Czernowin used the saw in her opera “ PNIMA… Ins Innere ” (2000) to represent the character of the grandfather traumatized by the Holocaust. Others are Leif Segerstam , Hans Zender (orchestration of the “ 5 preludes ” by Claude Debussy), Franz Schreker (opera Christophorus ) and Oscar Strasnoy (opera Le bal ).
The Russian composer Lera Auerbach wrote for the Singing Saw in her ballet The little mermaid (2005), in her symphonic poem Dreams and Whispers of Poseidon (2005), in her oratorio Requiem Dresden - Ode to Peace (2012), in her piano concerto No. . 1 (2015) and in her comic oratorio The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie (2016).
Movie
The singing saw was also used in the film. She had the most famous film appearance in the children's film Pippi out of control through the character of the vagabond Konrad, who strokes the saw in an abandoned house in a somewhat eerie scene. The final scene from Delicatessen (1991) with a duet for singing saw and violoncello, which is performed on a house roof, is also very well known .
Film music with Singing Saw: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End (2007)
Another Earth Another Earth (2011), dummy (film) (2002), Time Out of Mind (2014), The jinx: The life and death of Robert Durst (2015), Miss Stevens (2016), Amanda and Jack Go Glamping (2017)
Festivals, Guinness Book World Records and World Championships
Annual festivals for singing saws are the "Annual International Musical Saw Festival" (in mid-August in Santa Cruz / California), organized by the IMSA (International Musical Saw Association) and the New York City Musical Saw Festival. In 2008 a Guinness world record was set for the first time in Gostyn (Poland) for the world's largest saw ensemble (28 players). This was topped by the new Guinness world record at the New York City Musical Saw Festival 2009, in which 53 players simultaneously “sawed” Schubert's “Ave Maria”. In 2011 a world championship for singing saws took place in Jelenia Góra (Poland).
Motorcycle model
Following the sound of a circular saw that was of DKW used from 1953 to 1956 racing motorcycle RM 350 the nickname "singing saw" . Your two-stroke - three-cylinder motor allowed speeds up to 15,000 / min and caused quite a unique sound.
Web links
- history
- International Facebook group "The musical saw"
- World map with saw players from all over the world
Individual evidence
- ↑ Video Singing saw played with a lever
- ^ Richard Carlin: Country music, A Biographical Dictionary , New York 2003, p. 421
- ↑ Shellac record from 1927 with Dr. Otto Frederich, Singing Saw
- ^ Daniel Spoto: Marlene Dietrich. Heyne-Verlag, Munich 1992, p. 61
- ↑ Marlene Dietrich and the Singing Saw
- ↑ Marlene Dietrich plays "Aloha oe" on the Singing Saw in a USO show
- ↑ Article on Chatschaturjan's Piano Concerto, The Guardian , February 21, 2014
- ↑ Excerpt from a performance of the jazz opera "Jonny plays up" in Buenos Aires 2006, where the singing saw can be heard from 2'30, 2'54 and from 3'48
- ^ Report on the world premiere of the opera "Elegy for Young Lovers" by Hans Werner Henze
- ^ Program booklet for the world premiere of "Requiem Dresden - Ode to Peace" by Lera Auerbach ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ World premiere of piano concerto by Lera Auerbach, Badische Zeitung on Nov. 27, 2015
- ↑ About "The infant minstrel ..." by Lera Auerbach
- ↑ Saw in the film "Pirates of the Caribbean" ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Annual Singing Saw Festival in California
- ↑ The singing saw festival in New York City, which takes place irregularly
- ↑ Guinness world record for the largest saw ensemble (28 players) in Poland in 2008
- ↑ Guinness world record for the world's largest saw ensemble (53 players) in New York City in 2009
- ↑ World Singing Saw Championship in Jelenia Góra (Poland) 2011
