Mary Huntimer
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The Operatic Saxophone Turns 5
If you have had trouble accessing my database, don’t fret. I was using Caspio, a free online database for the past five years. This October, they switched to a paid only version, free to $100 a month. Why? Because now Caspio has AI. I can’t even begin to imagine why AI is useful in databases,…
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When the Border Patrol came to my neighborhood
This is going to be a political post, unrelated to anything saxophone. I will get back to saxophone history in the new year. Since it’s my blog, I decided I needed to tell this story. On November 15th, the Border Patrol led by the Nazi Greg Bovino came to Charlotte. Why do I call him…
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Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Die Kathrin; the jazz age opera Nazi’s tried to destroy
Erich Wolfgang Korngold is one of the most celebrated late romantic composers in the 20th century. A child prodigy whose brilliance was celebrated by Mahler and Richard Strauss, Korngold wrote his first opera, Die tote Stadt at the age of 23. Korngold was committed to late romantic harmony, he was unmoved by the new styles…
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Saxophone Mythbusters: Ibert’s Concertino da Camera is NOT Bebop
In the saxophone world, I sometimes hear saxophone professors proclaim ideas that are based on questionable knowledge of the history of saxophone literature and performance practice. After recently hearing from not one professor, but two, that Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera is bebop I feel the need to provide a quick refresher of the relationship…
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Dana Suesse, the “Girl Gershwin”
The following biography of Dana Seusse is for the Bull City Saxophone Quartet’s performance at the 2025 Navy Saxophone Symposium. If you will not be at the saxophone symposium and would like to learn more about this influential American composer, please read on. Dana Suesse (1909-1987) was an American composer and pianist who was one…
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The Unexpected Operas of Alexander Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky is a pivotal figure in the early 20th century. First discovered and promoted by Brahms, Zemlinsky established himself as one of the leading conductors and teachers in Vienna and throughout German speaking countries. Zemlinsky taught all of the Second Viennese School composers—Schoenberg, Berg, Webern—along with other Viennese composers. As a composer, Zemlinsky’s style…
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Rethinking Elise Hall
On the 100th anniversary of her death, The Legacy of Elise Hall–now available from Leuven University Press– provides a new outlook on Hall’s life and legacy as one of the major performers and concertizers of the saxophone. In various dissertations, articles and books, most writing on Hall has been colored with misogyny, talks of her…
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Nazis, Napoleon and the Saxophone, pt. 2, how Nazis weaponized gender to change the image of the saxophone
In a previous post on the opera Napoleon by Edmund von Borck, I made the argument that this opera works as a piece of wartime propaganda. The only piece of the opera that doesn’t fulfill the propaganda use is the style of the music and the use the saxophone in the orchestration. Wasn’t the saxophone…
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Selmer high pitched alto saxophone, the mystery continues….
Last year, a reader emailed me to inform me on his unique Selmer Cigar Cutter saxophone pitched in E. It turns out it was a high pitched alto saxophone. Selmer was not in the business of manufacturing high pitched saxophones, based on the information from Selmer there were only 10 made in the year of…
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Nazis, Napoleon, and the Saxophone, how Edmund von Borck’s 1942 opera, “Napoleon” is the perfect wartime propaganda
Last month, Jonas who is a saxophone student in Norway, wrote to me to tell me about Edmund von Borck’s operas and how they were missing in my list. He pointed to Dr. Wildy Zumwalt’s dissertation on Edmund von Borck and how I can find more info there. The opera that stood out to me…
the Operatic Saxophone 