The Solo Alto

I have long been interested in horn history. My main website is well known for its horn history resources and I am sure has been a destination for many people writing research papers lately.

My very first research paper, as a high school senior, was on Adolphe Sax and the Saxhorn. The Saxhorn, speaking generally, is the family of instruments that is the basis of the instruments of the brass band, the “roots” of the design of the modern E-flat tenor horn (or alto horn, as it was/is normally referred to in the United States) and the F mellophone.

Talking to another member of the Salt River Brass Band a few weeks ago I mentioned that I have always wanted to test a solo alto. Musical instrument catalogs from the era around 1900 always have a solo alto as a part of their line. A solo alto was a bell front version of an E-flat alto (tenor) horn, similar in concept to marching mellophone but a step lower in pitch and way ahead of its time. He graciously loaned me this Lyon & Healy “Silver Piston” solo alto from around the turn of the century.

At some point soon I will write in more depth about the whole E-flat alto horn/tenor horn topic but in short that solo alto is an interesting little horn. For many years the standard brass band instrumentation has had three E-flat alto parts; solo, first, and second. As the name implies, the solo alto was intended to play the solo alto part, while upright bell alto horns would play the first and second parts.

With a bell smaller than any tenor horn I have seen this particular instrument has a rather cornet-like tone and decent intonation. It is built to use an “American style” alto horn mouthpiece, smaller bore than the typical British mouthpiece but with a similar cup and shank. While this type of instrument will likely never see use in ensembles again, it is an interesting footnote to alto range history.