The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98741 Message #1960691
Posted By: GUEST,leeneia
07-Feb-07 - 10:29 PM
Thread Name: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
That's interesting, JimLad. I wouldn't have thought of recorder, but now that you mention it, the low ones definitely resemble singing.
About the saxophone - I have friends who are professional musicians, and they tell me that all instruments (and good voices) play impure notes. Meaning, that when playing pitch, they actually wobble, moving up a bit, then back to the note, down a bit, and back. etc.
The instrument that wobbles the most is the pipe organ, and the second-most wobbly is the saxophone. So how much one dislikes the sax depends in part on how sensitive one is to wobbling.
Another factor is that there is quite a tradition of playing the sax in an ugly manner. I mean such things as making it honk, spit and break. These things are just gimmicks, and they get on the nerves after a while. (I remember eating in a Cajun restaurant once where I wanted to take an Uzi to the speakers.)
On the other hand it can be quite beautiful, as in the Serenade in Pictures at an Exhibition as arranged by Ravel.