MUSIC FOR UNUSUAL INSTRUMENTS

By Judith Eckelmeyer

(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION APRIL 23, 2026)

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MUSICAL SAW

One of the most surprising instruments on which to perform classical music (or any music, for that matter) is the saw. That’s right—the workshop tool. It seems to have originated as a folk instrument in the Appalachian region of the U.S., but appeared in Scandinavia, Germany, France and Asia as well. Perhaps northern European immigrants were responsible for bringing this unique instrument to America; the deep history is foggy.

The saw is played by a sawist, usually seated, who places the handle between his knees, then with the left hand bends the saw and strokes the edge of it with a violin or cello bow.
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Wikipedia gives a good description of the technique for playing:
To sound a note, a sawist first bends the blade into an S-curve. The parts of the blade that are curved are dampened from vibration and do not sound. At the center of the S-curve, a section of the blade remains relatively flat. This section, known as the "sweet spot," can vibrate across the blade's width, producing a distinct pitch: the wider the section of the blade, the lower the sound. Sound is usually produced by drawing a bowacross the back edge of the saw at the sweet spot or, alternatively, by striking the sweet spot with a mallet.

The sawist controls the pitch by adjusting the S-curve, making the sweet spot travel up the blade (toward a thinner width) for a higher pitch or toward the handle for a lower pitch. Harmonics can be created by playing at varying distances on either side of the sweet spot. Sawists can add vibrato by shaking one of their legs or by wobbling the hand that holds the tip of the blade. Once a sound is produced, it will sustain for quite a while, and can be carried through several notes of a phrase.

The performers you will be hearing are David Weiss, the late principal oboist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and members of that orchestra. The notes with the CD album explain that David uses three saws on the recording. His favorite is a 26” Stanley  Handyman (although the company has changed the specifications for this saw since the recording). Two others are the Mussehl and Westphal Professional 28” tenor and the Sandvikens “Stradivarius”, made in Sweden, is a 32” tool with a low, dark baritone sound. 
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On  this recording, David is joined not only be LA Phil members but also members of his own family, including his wife, Alpha Hockett Walker, pianist.

David Weiss musical saw
​Alpha Walker piano

David Weiss playing To a Wild Rose
Alpha Walker, piano

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CASTRATO

About 1715-17, a boy with a beautiful voice (that had not yet changed) and even then clear musical ability was said to have fallen from a horse. The resulting “injuries” rendered him unable to mature sexually. In reality, his family was facing poverty because his father had died. The best resource left to the family was to have this boy taken by representatives of the church to undergo castration, giving him a future as a singer—a soprano, highly useful for both church music and the theater, in operas. ​

Portrait of Farinelli by Bartolomeo Nazari (1734)

The boy was Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, who became known throughout Europe as Farinelli (1705-1788). He would achieve great fame by virtue of fine training by the best and most famous vocal teacher in Naples, Nicola Porpora, a composer and contemporary of J. S. Bach and Handel. Farinelli’s father and older brother were both composers, but his brother Riccardo composed music specifically to demonstrate the glorious quality of his brother’s voice and the complex technical skills of which he was a master. Farinelli, for his part, sang in many operas across Europe; his repertoire included works by all the major composers writing operas. Farinelli’s participation in operas would be as a hero who was usually cast as a high voice, suggesting youth and vigor, warranting a range of singing styles from flamboyance in victory or anger; suave, quiet beauty of grief; great power or near a whisper; a pitch range of three and a half octaves; and many other vocal devices required to convey the emotions of a dramatic story. Thus Farinelli’s almost incredible vocal skill and musical sophistication linked to  modesty and politeness of behavior earned him great popularity among his public and great respect among his musical peers. Great financial rewards and rich gifts were showered on him by the adoring public. He was the rock star of the 18th century. ​

Why??? Why was this mutilation visited upon young boys? Because women’s voices were banned from the church and the stage in the Neapolitan area in the 18th century; castrati filled the soprano section when there were too few or no young trained boy singers to perform the part. Ironically, to produce a movie of Farinelli’s life and career, a woman’s voice was needed; Polish soprano Eva Mallas-Godlewska’s soprano was electronically blended, fused, with the countertenor voice of Derik Lee Ragin to achieve the almost otherworldly quality thought to approximate Farinelli’s vocal quality. The result can be heard in the music from that 1993 film track on tonight’s program.

Alessandro Moreschi, Castrato sings Ave Maria

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BASSETT HORN

In the course of music history composers pushed a lot of envelopes. One of them was new sonorities. The invention of the saxophone, the valved trumpet and French horn, the Wagner tuba and others are examples. In Mozart’s time, the late 18th century, a kind of modified clarinet appeared  (see above)—the bassett horn, originating in Passau, Germany, about 1770, in the workshop of A. and M. Mayrhofer. This instrument was pitched lower than any existing clarinet, and to achieve this lower range and permit a performer to reach the finger holes or keys the body of the instrument was bent in two places—below the mouthpiece and again about half-way down the body. The mouthpiece was like a clarinet’s, supporting a single reed like the clarinet. There are additional keys to extend the range.  In the 18th century the bore (diameter) of the body was a bit larger than that of the clarinet (modern versions have three possible sizes of bore). The resulting sound or timbre was “darker” than a clarinet’s. 

A number of late 18th century composers wrote for the instrument; chief among them was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom the darker, “warmer” sound seemed to warrant special uses. He created numerous chamber works for the instrument: six “nottorni” (nocturns) with vocal soloists and from one to three bassett horns, and six instrumental divertimenti, each with three bassett horns. He also incorporated bassett horns in several operas, notably The Clemency of Titus and The Magic Flute, and his Requiem, all written in 1791. Mozart had also originally thought of it as the solo instrument in a concerto, but he revised his plan and instead completed the concerto late in 1791 for a clarinet. Finally, he featured the warm quality of the instrument in the Masonic works he wrote from 1785 to his death in 1791, associating it with the humanistic perspective promoted in the philosophy and teachings of that organization.

Clarinet concerto in A major K 622 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra La Scintilla (Opernhaus Zürich) | Directed by Ada Pesch
Soloist: Robert Pickup, basset clarinet 

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Judith Eckelmeyer ©2026