Product Description
Jules Demersseman was born on January 9, 1833 in Hondschoote, a small town in the north of France
now near the border of Belgium. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1844 in the class of Jean-Louis
Tulou and won a first prize in flute in 1845. Demersseman had a career as a pedogogue and soloist, often
performing his own compositions. A close friend of Adolphe Sax, he wrote some of the first works ever
written for the saxophone, as well as for the saxhorn and for Saxs valved trombone, most of which were
published by Sax himself.. Demersseman died in Paris on December 1, 1866 at the age of 33.
The twelve études were first published by Adolphe Sax's publishing house and also used in his saxophone
class at the Paris Conservatory. The twelve études are in a number of styles (lied, aria, tarantella, rondo,
valse etc), but all share an extremely chromatic tonal idiom that is charactoristic of the middle romantic
period, especially among the Opera composers of the time. In working through these études, it is important
to try to hear the underlying harmonic context of each modulation, which constitues the principle quality of
these études.
In the first édition published by Sax, there were a large number of key signature changes, including several
where the key signature changed in the middle of a measure. The editor made the decision to use more modern
chromatic notation in a great many of these cases, as this has become the norm today. However, the initial key
signatures have been added. Some editorial breath marks, articulations and expressive marks have also been
added. The performer is encouraged to change these if he feels that another solution might be more suitable
to his vision of the pieces.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.