The Saxophone: Instrument of the Devil
Eleri Ann Evans
Abstract
The saxophone has throughout its short life been considered by many as the
musical embodiment of evil. The distinctive curving shape of the instrument was
featured on Nazi posters to publicize the discouraged Entartete Musik (degenerate
music). The saxophone came for many to represent this type of music, and was
effectively the most widely recognised symbol of it. Many of the composers
shunned in this era were those who had written for the instrument, though even
these composers later grew to dislike the instrument and the shady qualities it
seemed to epitomize. A ban on the performance of the instrument remained in
place in parts of Eastern Europe until the 1980s. This not only stunted growth of
the instrument, but made it appear to remain the root cause of evil in music, long
after many of the composers labelled undesirable during the run up to the Second
World War had once again had their music (not involving the saxophone)
performed. The link to jazz and African-American dance music led to further
ethical questioning of the instrument during the 20 th century. It was seen as an
instrument which could manipulate people’s desires with its inherent sexuality and
over-rule level-headed independent thinking with its wicked ways. The snake-like
shape of the instrument seems to encourage the frequent sexual references,
deeming it a manipulative female character, which the constant play on words of
the instrument’s name also encourages. The evil connotations of the instrument had
been discovered long before the Second World War, and continue through to the
current day, when composers still choose to use the instrument to portray the
darker side of life. The aim of this lecture is to discuss the reasons behind the
saxophone being labelled the instrument of the devil and why it remains a
controversial musical choice.
Key words: Entartete Musik, evil, jazz, music, saxophone.
*****
Evil is not a quality that one necessarily associates with music. Music is more
frequently seen as an equal, all-encompassing genre, or used as a symbol of
conquering in todays’ world. It is a genre that we associate with enjoyment and
relaxation. We are surrounded by music almost wherever we go. We therefore
rarely speak of music in such strong terms as the loaded word, evil, more often
expressing merely mild annoyance at the muzak in the elevator or supermarket.
We have music to dance to on a Friday night, music to keep us calm in the dentist’s
waiting room, music to walk down the aisle to. Our favourite music! It is a genre
with incredible power, something that can be used to manipulate, even without us
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knowing. This is what gives it, and the people who use it, power over the public at
large.
The intoxicating sounds of the saxophone have been seen through the years as
particularly successful at creating certain moods and spheres; those of mysticism,
eroticism and rebellion. It is for this reason I believe the saxophone has, throughout
its life, been deemed evil by so many political and religious leaders. There have
been numerous censorships for an instrument that is now commonly associated
with light or relaxing music, sultry moods in films, and elevator music…. Thanks
mostly to Kenny G.
Although musicians frequently attribute various characters to different musical
instruments amongst themselves, such properties are not readily assigned to many
musical instruments by the general public. The saxophone is an exception. Most
members of the public will associate it with certain situations or feelings, whilst a
large percentage of musically trained people either express disinterest in it, or
relate to the instrument in much the way the public does. The characters of other
instruments that musicians talk about are frequently associated with various
performers. The saxophone though, is spoken about in terms of abstract qualities of
the instrument, rather than those of the performer.
We might jokingly call a car or a computer evil, when on occasion it fails to
work as we would like it to. The saxophone is merely an object, a piece of metal,
controlled by a human being, so how does a saxophone become evil?
Musical instruments are formed, structured, and carved out of personal
and social experience as much as they are built up from a great variety of
natural and synthetic materials. They exist at an intersection of material,
social, and cultural worlds where they are … constructed and fashioned
by the force of minds, cultures, societies, and histories.1
It is due then to the personality traits that have been bestowed upon the
instrument throughout its relatively short lifespan. It seems that the personality of
the saxophone has been adversely affected through its association with certain
music types and performance genres.
The saxophone was invented by the Paris based Belgian, Adolphe Sax, in the
1840s and is the only traditional musical instrument to have been invented by one
person. From the start of its life, the magical creation combining the body of a
brass instrument and the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument was dogged by
problems. These were often caused by fractions in the musical community in
which he lived. Sax himself died a pauper, having survived serious illness, and
several attempts on his life when other manufacturers tried to gain access to his
designs. The instrument evolved more through a series of patent expirations and
updates, to keep one step ahead of the competition, than as an organic design
process like most other instruments. The Parisian underworld of Sax’s
surroundings seemed reminiscent of a Dickensian tale.
Eleri Ann Evans
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The other-worldly ideas surrounding the instrument have grown from a belief
that the saxophone has some form of demonic power that has control over players,
audiences - anyone who gets in its way. The curving, swirling shape can seem
hypnotic and it is sometimes depicted as a serpent or a snake in illustrations. This
power can be seen in the quotes of jazz and classical players, several of whom feel
overcome upon their first encounter with the instrument. ‘A religious experience’,2
‘being saved’3 or ‘invaded by a virus’4 are amongst the statements made to the
journalist Michael Segell in various interviews. Yet another player calls it ‘the
sound of sex’,5 alluding to its erotic qualities. Segell, himself is a saxophone
aficionado and talks about the mysterious energy that pervades anything to do with
the instrument. He calls it a cult, and speaks of his body becoming an ‘instrument
of the devil’6 upon picking up a saxophone.
These unfathomable magical qualities have shrouded the instrument in cloaks
of the netherworld since its inception. Adolphe Sax, the inventor, apparently wrote,
just before his own death, to his brother Alphonse, speaking of dreams in which
‘black devils were blowing his horn (the saxophone) and summoning all the
damned to the infernos of hell’.7 Quite a dream for a man who had spent the
greater part of his life devoted to developing this instrument.
The mysticism around the instrument evolved as it struggled to find its place in
musical society. Although liked by a small number of eminent French composers
and briefly forming part of the elitist musical regime at the Paris Conservatoire
shortly after its invention, by the turn of the 20th century the instrument found
itself amongst somewhat rather degenerate company. Having found no acceptance
in orchestral circles, one of the first saxophone ensembles was found touring as
part of a minstrel troop at a circus.
The Brown Brothers, a group of sometimes five, sometimes six musicians who
were not always actually brothers, 8 became some of the highest earners on the
musical comedy or minstrel circuit.9 The instrument performed alongside other
typical members of the circus or circus acts. These included many of the people
who were seen as different from the majority, often considered the freaks of nature:
mythical creatures, such as the bearded lady or the sword swallower. The members
of the Brown Brothers ensemble worked in blackface, by rubbing burnt cork on
their faces, supposedly alluding to the African-American origins of the music that
the saxophone played. The group was the main musical attraction at almost all the
touring acts in which they performed. For many years then, the saxophone was a
circus act, a very successful one, but never-the-less something associated with
marginal things.
The demise of the Brown Brothers was due largely to excesses of the life style,
heavy drinking and gambling. 10 Following on from the Brown Brothers was
saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft, one of the highest paid Vaudeville performers, who
also succumbed to the excesses of alcohol. The move into Vaudeville saw the
saxophone once again occupy strange, but yet extravagant circles. Together with
Vaudeville came the decadence that we currently associate with Hollywood actors,
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rock stars or even Premier league football players. They were not the embodiment
of the clean, wholesome ideas of Sax, or his brother Alphonse, who had started
brass ensembles believing that the saxophone and Sax’s other brass instrument
inventions could save young women from iniquity. 11
The supposed mystic and the erotic qualities attributed to the saxophone led to
attacks on the instrument’s morality. The physical nature of the instrument is
suggestive, and oft likened to a woman’s curves. Living its life in circles such as
the circus, minstrel troops, and Vaudeville, these ideas were perhaps no surprise.
In 1917, a newspaper article was published entitled ‘The Saxophone - Siren of
Satan’. It lamented the use of the saxophone:
No other musical instrument can be so immoral…. The saxophone is
guttural, savage, panting and low in its appeal.
….The abstract immorality of the saxophone… is but an example of the
power that gilded sin has for the moment over thoughtless minds…
Some severe action must sooner or later be taken upon the matter of our
dance music and measures enforced prohibiting the use of the saxophone
in this connection or compelling musicians to play it in another fashion.12
Stravinsky likened the saxophone to a pink, slimy worm,13 and Debussy, even
with a commission fee, put off writing a solo saxophone work for many years. 14
The same, shady image of the saxophone appears to have transcended musical
borders with the likes of Berg’s Lulu in which the saxophone is used to depict the
temptress. How this thought pattern of the relationship between a musical
instrument and its music has come about is developed in Baily15 when he discusses
how an instrument and its interaction with the human body may guide the
formation of the music.
The social panic that followed the saxophone along each step of its
development might have been seen to reach its highpoint in the years surrounding
World War II, but it had already been cited as an undesirable instrument at the turn
of the century.
The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 had already stopped the development of the
saxophone by closing the class at Paris Conservatoire,16 but it was dealt another
blow less than ten years after Sax’s death. The Vatican officially censured the use
of wind instruments in 1903, an order not rescinded to this day. 17 It was Pope Pius
X’s strong dislike of the saxophone that caused him to issue the 1903 decree. In
1914 the Vatican marked the saxophone out for individual criticism, once again
condemning the instrument. 18
In the 1920s, American magazine, the Ladies’ Home Journal, published articles
condemning the early jazz/dance craze and citing the saxophone as the main
culprit.19 Because of its central role the saxophone was also singled out as the
‘scapegoat for all the evils attached to jazz dancing’. 20
Eleri Ann Evans
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A review in The Musical Times, of a 1937 London concert by German classical
saxophonist Sigurd M. Raschèr showed no more sympathy for the instrument.
Mr Sigurd Rascher (sic) came on armed with a saxophone, a fine head of
hair, and an aspiration. It was generous on the part of the Philharmonic to
join in the missionary work on behalf of the saxophone, for the instrument
shows no eagerness to have its soul saved. It persists in enjoying itself
more in low than in high company. 21
‘Armed with a saxophone’22 sounds almost as if it is a weapon, something that
can do harm.
Sigurd Raschèr fled Germany in the mid-1930s, moving to teach in Denmark
and Sweden before settling in America. This rapid departure from Germany just
before World War II was, it seems, because he played the saxophone. 23 One of the
key developers of the classical saxophone school, Sigurd M. Raschèr, was the
brother of Sigmund Rascher, a doctor who had undertaken experiments on
prisoners of war in the concentration camps.24 It can’t have been an easy family in
which to decide to pursue a career as a saxophonist.
The poster for the 1938 exhibition of Entartete Musik in Düsseldorf was of a
caricature of an African-American man playing the saxophone whilst wearing a
Jewish six-pointed star. The instrument quickly became the symbol for all the
music and ideals that were despised by the Nazis. The playing of jazz and other
African-American music was strictly forbidden and due to the pivotal role of the
saxophone in these styles, the saxophone was also banned. As many of the
composers shunned by the Nazis later chose to write for the saxophone, the stigma
of the instrument remained and the aftermath of the Nazi ban of the saxophone
lasted for many years.
The control and censorship of the instrument and its performance was effective
across much of Eastern Europe. In 1949, in the Soviet Union, Stalin officially
banned the saxophone25 and saxophonists were sent to labour camps in Siberia.
Saxophonists from ensembles had to report to the state music office, where their
saxophones were taken from them, and the details on their identification cards
were officially changed erasing any trace of the saxophone. Many of the
neighbouring countries followed in the footsteps of the Soviet Union which
resulted in the saxophone being proscribed across Eastern Europe. This exclusion
continued in Albania until 1991!26
In the 1950s and early 1960s the focus on the saxophone as the root of all evil
once again returned to America. Saxophonist Big Jay McNeely, who was known
for playing in the rather self-explanatory honking and screaming style, managed
through his playing to turn the youths into ‘devils with strange bulging eyes and
tongues that dangled like powerless beef-steaks over their bottom lips.’27
McNeely would often lie on his back on stage, with his saxophone held above
him and play non-stop for many hours. In 1953 he was arrested for causing social
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disorder. Authorities were worried that his playing suggested and even created a
sexual excitement amongst the listeners. The government and the police were
called upon to stop the trance or hysteria caused by voodoo that they believed this
man could exact through his saxophone playing. 28
The latest outrage or social panic concerning the saxophone was in 1995, when
British saxophonist John Harle premiered Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s work, Panic at
the Last Night of the Proms. The performance was met with booing in the audience
and harsh criticism in the press. The piece which referenced the Greek God Pan in
the title placed the saxophone anew at the forefront of social disturbance - it was
once again considered evil. It seems that the saxophone is still not accepted in
classical music.
Jonathan Cross, in his review of the first performance, rightly says that ‘“moral
panic” is a phrase normally associated with middle-class reactions to subversive
youth subcultures, not with cultural products aimed directly at the bourgeoisie’.29
It is true to say that moral panic is more frequently associated with subversive
youth cultures, but it seems that the saxophone is capable of causing such panic
regardless of the surroundings.
Julian Johnson wrote that the ‘division of culture by the spatial metaphors high
and low … has informed cultural criticism for too long to simply be ignored’.30
Whilst the saxophone is closely related to the subversive youth cultures of the
day, it will invoke criticism and remain an instrument of the devil whichever
setting it finds itself in.
Contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, both of whom could
be considered as belonging to the subversive youth culture of the current day, have
used the saxophone in their music. Likewise, the saxophone can be seen regularly
in the Simpsons cartoon played by Lisa Simpson. The saxophone is nowadays a
universally recognised instrument, unlike say the cor anglais or the french horn,
and as such it is frequently used to catch people’s attention through its use in the
media. It was originally intended by Adolph Sax as a pure instrument to be used in
military bands and to aid people who had difficulty in breathing, 31 but it is now
more likely to be seen promoting certain ‘sexy’ products such as perfume, or
attempting to imbue some cool into a former American president. The media
saturation of the instrument in the 1980s and 1990s has meant, in recent years, that
the saxophone has fallen out of favour. It seems to have lost some of its mythical
and erotic qualities due to frequent representations in daily life and has become a
cliché.
The two books that have been written on the subject of the immoral saxophone
are by journalists, Rudie Kagie and Michael Segell, rather than researchers. They
seem to both want to perpetuate the myth. It could be argued that the use of
propaganda to sustain the general media image continues to do this. The sexual
iconography of the saxophone has undoubtedly grown since its invention. That the
inventor’s name, Sax, is unfortunately only one letter different from sex has been
frequently exploited.
Eleri Ann Evans
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Musical semantics during the 20th century led the saxophone to being an
associate of low class musical cultures. These judgements have meant the
instrument has, at times, been called or seen as evil. In places or times when the
state or other parties have chosen to control people’s minds through musical
literacy, it has very often been the saxophone that has suffered.
The position that the saxophone holds as an outcast has, as with so many social
pariahs, led the instrument to be seen as evil. This is purely because it is different
and does not fit in with society and society’s ideals. The apparent intrinsic
eroticism of the instrument creates panic, which was believed to be the signalling
of evil intentions. The evil nature of the saxophone has come about by judgements
made on a communal level. The idea of the saxophone, as an instrument of the
devil, has not arrived over-night, but has been the process of growing shared
beliefs through the years of the development of the instrument.
Notes
1
Kevin Dawe, ‘The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments’, in The Cultural Study
of Music: a critical introduction, eds. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert and Richard
Middleton (London: Routledge, 2003), 275.
2
Michael Segell, The Devil’s Horn: The story of the saxophone from noisy novelty
to king of cool (New York: Picador, 2005), 6.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid., 35.
6
Ibid., 7.
7
Ibid., 39.
8
Bruce Vermazen, That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the
dawning of a musical craze (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 61.
9
Ibid., 2.
10
Ibid., 185.
11
Katharine Ellis, ‘The Fair Sax: Women, Brass-Playing and the Instrument Trade
in 1860s Paris’, in Journal of the Royal Musical Association 124/2 (1999), 221.
12
Isador Berger, ‘The Saxophone – Siren of Satan’, Atlanta Constitution
Magazine Section (14 January 1917), Viewed 27 September 2012,
<http://www.fold3.com/image/#92855236>.
13
Anthony Linick, The Lives of Ingolf Dahl (Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2008),
158.
14
Stephen Cottrell, The Saxophone (Padstow: Yale, 2012), 244-5.
15
John Baily, ‘Movement patterns in playing the Herati dutar’, in The anthropology
of the body, ed. John Blacking (London: Academic Press, 1977), 275.
16
Wally Horwood, Adolphe Sax 1814-1894 (Baldock: Egon Publishers, 1980),
134.
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17
‘Motu Proprio, Tra le Sollecitudini del Sommo Pontefice, Pio X, Sulla Musica
Sacra, 22 novembre 1903’, Viewed 27 September 2012.
<http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_x/motu_proprio/documents/hf_px_motu-proprio_19031122_sollecitudini_it.html>.
18
Segell, Devil’s Horn, 87.
19
Ibid., 89.
20
Ibid., 88-89.
21
Anon., ‘Royal Philharmonic Society’ in The Musical Times 78/1128 (February
1937), Viewed 27 September 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/920769.
22
Ibid.
23
Cottrell, The Saxophone, 323.
24
Michael H. Kater, Doctors Under Hitler (Chapel Hill and London: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 125-6.
25
Rudie Kagie, De Verboden Saxofoon (Baarn: de Prom, 2000), 15.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid., 9.
28
Ibid., 9-11.
29
Jonathan Cross, ‘Thoughts on First Hearing Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s “Panic”…’,
in Tempo 195 (January 1996), 34-35.
30
Julian Johnson, Who Needs Classical Music? (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002), 111.
31
Al Rose, ‘The Saxophone: Its Strange Origins’, in African American Review
29/2, (Summer 1995), 233.
Bibliography
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Eleri Ann Evans
__________________________________________________________________
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Eleri Ann Evans is a saxophonist specializing in contemporary repertoire. She is
currently pursuing a PhD in progressive saxophone performance at the University
of Huddersfield.