Exploration and expansion: new music for the tubax

As one of the most recent additions to the saxophone family, the Tubax is a variant of the contrabass saxophone with a completely revised body design. Since the year 2000, this revolutionary instrument has been designed and built in Germany by Benedikt Eppelsheim, who transformed the hulking and clumsy contrabass saxophone into a capably virtuosic and expressive instrument.

It is rare to find a large, towering contrabass saxophone measuring seven feet in height. Historically used as an auxiliary instrument in bands and somewhat forgotten, the contrabass saxophone and its variants are experiencing a resurgence of popularity.

Two major objectives of this recording project are to promote the Tubax as a capable soloist instrument, and to explore its potential and expand its repertoire in a variety of compositional styles and settings.

The recording portion of this project consists entirely of new compositions for the Tubax. As a written resource for those interested in the contrabass saxophone and the Tubax, this document includes information on their history, usage, and development. Also included in the document are significant original contribution to the use of the Tubax’s extended techniques, including a fingering chart for the altissimo register.