More information about works by Ali Ben Sou Alle

[PaulWehage]

You might have heard of the 19th century Saxophonist Ali Ben Sou
Alle. Recently I've been doing some work at the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris and I came across his music in the catalog. The
works are slowly being published and are now available. There are
currently 17 works available for either Alto or Soprano Saxophone and
piano which include Opera fantaisies, charactor pieces (generally for
Alto saxophone) and the cycle of works which were in the "Royal
Album", presented to the Prince of Wales after a concert in London and
which document Sou Alle's around the World tour in the 1850-1860s,
which with the exception of "Souvenir de Natal" (for Alto Saxophone)
are for Soprano Saxophone and Piano.

You can read a biographical sketch of Ali Ben Sou Alle at
http://www.classicalmusicnow.com/absa.htm . I have been making a
series of posts on the Musik Fabrik blog which describes the works and
some ideas that I have about them. The posts are as follows:

Souvenirs du Cap Bonne Espérence (Souvenirs of the Cap of Good Hope)
for soprano saxophone and piano
Largo- Variations sur "The Irish Emigrant-Polka
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/ali-ben-sou-alle-souvenirs-du-cap-bonne.html

Souvenirs de L'Inde (Souvenirs of India) for soprano saxophone and
piano
Andante/Air Malabar varié/Polonaise
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/ali-ben-sou-alle-souvenirs-de-linde.html

Souvenirs de la Chine (Souvenirs of China) for soprano saxophone and
piano
Air chinoise ""Loc Tee Kun Tsin" - Valse Brillante
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/ali-ben-sou-alle-souvenirs-de-la-chine.html

Souvenirs de Java for soprano saxophone and piano
Largo-Variations sur "Nina Nina Bobo"-Andante-Polonaise
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/ali-ben-sou-alle-souvenirs-de-java.html

Souvenirs de L'Ile Maurice
Pastorale-Rondo: Valse brillante
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/ali-ben-sou-alle-souvenirs-de-lile.html

Souvenirs de L'Angleterre (Souvenirs of England) Largo-Valse brillante
and
Souvenirs de L'Ecosse (Souvenirs of Scotland) Introduction, Variations
sur "Charley is my darling" et Boléro
plus some historical information that I've found on the web
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/03/todays-project-was-editing-another-one.html

There is also an article about my own opinions about the music of Jean-
Baptiste Singélée verse that of Ali Ben Sou Alle. The long and short
of it that I think that Ali Ben Sou Alle is a much stronger composer
but he was marginalized because of the life he lived, but I go into
detail.
http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/singele-verses-sou-alle.html

There are three other works in the "Souvenirs de..." series still to
come, plus another Opera Fantasy based on Verdi's "Le Corsaire".

To see our saxophone music catalog, you can visit
http://www.classicalmusicnow.com/saxcat.htm

Best wishes,

Paul Wehage http://www.paulwehage.com/
for Musik Fabrik
http://www.classicalmusicnow.com/

[Jack Campin - bogus address]

> You might have heard of the 19th century Saxophonist Ali Ben Sou Alle. [...]

> Souvenirs de L'Ecosse (Souvenirs of Scotland) Introduction, Variations
> sur "Charley is my darling" et Boléro
> plus some historical information that I've found on the web
> http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/03/todays-project-was-editing-another-one.html

Is this going to be published soon?

> There is also an article about my own opinions about the music of Jean-
> Baptiste Singélée verse that of Ali Ben Sou Alle. The long and short
> of it that I think that Ali Ben Sou Alle is a much stronger composer
> but he was marginalized because of the life he lived, but I go into
> detail.
> http://musikfabriknewmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/singele-verses-sou-alle.html

Interesting. (I knew of Singelee, and your evaluation makes sense to me).
I wonder if this casts any light on a quote I've seen attributed to Wagner,
that he called the saxophone a "race-mixed instrument". Wagner had no
particular reason to pick a fight with Singelee, but an Oriental trying to
break into the European music world would have been a different story, and
particularly if he had something to say.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === <http://www.campin.me.uk> ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts