Music,
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Music, |
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The saw has been typically been stereotyped as associated with eyrie, spooky or frightening sounds, but it is in fact an instrument with massive capabilities and tonal qualities that compare equally with the best singers or instrumentalists. The following is a list of original works for the musical saw and I'll add to this as my research continues.
Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (1927) uses the musical saw to track the song of the Sphinx whilst she taunts Oedipus.
Henri Sauguet wrote a piece called “Plainte” (1949) for musical saw and piano.
Alfred Schnittke's Nagasaki Oratorio (1957–58,)- Was written in the era of the cold war. The Independent referred to this piece ( 27th Aug 2009 ) as "bombarding the audience with everything in his orchestral armoury" and that of course includes the musical saw.
Penderecki’s Capriccio for violin and orchestra (1967) includes hummed vocalisation, electric guitar and musical saw.
George Crumb included a saw in his “Ancient Voices of Children.”
Jonathan Rutherford has written 2 pieces for musical saw and these are:
A Double Concerto for Accordion and Saw (or flute) with string quartet. This is a substantial 45 minutes long piece and was written for Owen Murray and Harriet Longman. This can be heard in computer generated performance by contacting Scottish Music Information Centre www.smic.org.uk.
An Intake of Breath (for musical saw, violin and soprano) available from http://www.modusmusic.org/ was first broadcast in April 2001 on BBC Radio 3.
F L Duncan Wedd in 2008 composed "Shakem with the wind"
The musical saw has also featured in a number of soundtracks for films. Examples include "Swing Your Lady" with Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart (1938), " Give a little whistle" from Pinocchio (1940) "My Brother Talks to Horses" (1947), "Curtain Call at Cactus Creek" (1950), "A Fine Madness" (1966), "Cabaret" with Liza Minelli (1972), "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and "Delicatessen" (1991).
Composing for the musical saw
For anyone who is interested in writing music for a musical saw you need to be aware that not all saws are the same and the range of notes that are covered by one instrument is not necessarily completely covered by another. On my my musical saws page there is some guidance to the range of notes that are possible from some different manufacturers of saws. It is a wonderful instrument to write for and it is guaranteed to capture the imagination of your audience, but do take care and try to avoid multiple obscure leaps. Unlike any other instrument all the notes are relative to each other and only experience enables the player to predict where the note will be.
If you want to hear the live sound of the different saws you can look me up on SKYPE (user name = charles.hindmarsh) or email me your music and I'll record a sample for you.
Best wishes
Charles Hindmarsh