What Instrument (in you opinion) sounds great.

[zlya]

I guess I'm getting old and fixed in my ways - the saxophone, to me at least, is a *vile* instrument. I respect those who have poured their heart and soul into mastering it - I too, am quite familiar with it. Now when I hear it my nerves are jangled. On an oscilloscope the sound wave of a saxophone looks like this: |^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| a buzz-saw! The sound of chaos and dissonance.

I blame Charlie Parker. The Saxophone, when played well, can have a gorgeous, golden tone, open and warm and not at all buzzy, similar to a very rich oboe, but less nasal. (If you're wondering, sop sax sounds more like oboe than clarinet because sax and oboe are both conical in shape, so that both produce a spectrum containing even and odd harmonics, while clarinet, being cylindrical, produces only odd numbered harmonics).

But Charlie Parker and those d**n Beboppers came along and turned that gorgeous instrument into an imitation chain-saw. Moreover, all the little jazzyboppers caught the fad, and today you are hard pressed to hear a decent sax sound.

And yet, there is potential in that instrument for great beauty, disregarded by the silly little jazz saxophonists, the saxophone of Berlioz. Forget jazz saxophone, try listening to some proper orchestral sax before you make up your mind.

[janny108]

I like the string section of any orchestra. Also like the oboe, it's such a pretty, poignant instrument.
Jan

[Krummhorn]

In the interest of seeking classical works for Sax, I found this gem:
Muczunski Saxaphone Concerto with Orchestra

+ YouTube Video

I do believe that is a female conductor, too [a topic in another thread on MIMF]

[wtwt5237]

This question has no meaning.
How can you value different instruments like this. Can you ask whether TV is more useful or fridge? What you can say is that in this example violin plays the most important and brilliant part.

[zlya]

Fridge is definitely more useful than TV.

[toejamfootball]

Harpsichord