Extreme Sax
Soprillogy
Nigel Wood, UK pioneer of the tiny soprillo sax, is heading for another first with an all-soprillo CD due for release in Spring 2008. There are soprillo features on the two National Saxophone Choir of Great Britain CDs Sax in the City and Sax to the Max but the new CD, which is to be called Soprillogy, will be entirely devoted to this minute instrument.
There will be at least four original works for soprillo including Ivor Kripokavi's Milina, an outcome of the 2006 World Saxophone Congress in Slovenia, plus new arrangements and transcriptions by Nigel himself. He describes the album as "Only a beginning, just a first step in an exploration of the soprillo's potential."
Meanwhile, playing the smallest sax in the world continues to throw up technical and logistical problems. Achieving good control and tuning on the soprillo's top notes is an essential but excruciating objective for the serious soprilloist, wreaking havoc with the player's lips. Nigel has found that the upper register draws blood (literally) even through six folded Rizla papers and has had to resort to 'Matty' pop-ups (end papers used by hair-dressers) - surely the first recorded use of a hair product in woodwind playing. And, in an indignity unlikely to befall the larger extremes of the sax family, Nigel's soprillo got lost in the post this autumn en route from developmental modifications in Germany, preventing him from playing in a National Sax Choir gig. To avoid such problems in the future, Nigel has now become a multiple soprillo owner and suddenly - just the prospect makes the hair stand on end - there's talk of an all-soprillo congress on the air...
Soprillda waltzes in Slovenia
Clare Mackney reports from the World Sax Congress, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 8th July 2006:
"Whoops of appreciation for the NSC at the World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, leave no room for doubt - the choir has well and truly arrived on the international scene!....
....Nigel [Wood] and his soprillo brought the house down with Waltzing Soprillda. This was more than an incredulous, spur-of-the-moment response to Nigel's ability to control this tiny little instrument and make it sing – immediately after the concert the national radio snapped Nigel up for an interview, and Slovene composer Igor Krivokapic has completed a piece for soprillo and harp called Milina [which will be published by Saxtet Publications shortly].
Clare was representing the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain and her Congress report will appear in the December 2006 issue of CASS magazine.
For more information about the soprillo, please visit www.soprillo.com and www.saxchoir.com.
