Singelée verses Sou Alle

Yesterday, I worked on finishing up my new edition of Jean-Baptiste Singelée's Concertino, opus 78 for Alto Saxophone and Piano. Singelée was a friend of Adolphe Sax and wrote many of the first examination pieces for the Saxophone class at the Paris conservatory. This piece was used for the 1861 examinations. It's not an unpleasant piece, using all of the harmonic conventions of a Sonata-Allegro Classical concerto...but has absolutely no formal structure. The work is essentially a series of pleasant, but unrelated phrases which do not relate to each other in any meaningful way. The title "Concertino" does not really apply to this work, it is more of a lyric fantasy, with certain passages which have a certain virtuosity.

I must say that, although this piece is of historical importance, its musical importance in terms of quality is doubtful. In comparison, Ali Ben Sou Alle is really a much more solid composer, manipulating forms, stylistic vocabulary, and harmonic structures in a much more meaningful, professional manner. Yet, Singelée's works are much more universally known, while the only currently available editions of Sou Alle's work are our own.

It is true that Sou Alle, as an eccentric figure who made his living touring rather than teaching, and whose works were "self-published" (Parent, sometimes named as the editor, was the printer according to the first editions themselves), was not a part of the Paris musical establishment that represented Adolph Sax's publishing concern, his instrument company and his conservatory class. I also think that Sax probably was not terribly inclined to be associated with someone who had not only modified his creation but also was calling it something else. But the bottom line is that Sou Alle's music is much more solid than those of his contemporaries.

Part of this could have to do with the necessity of coming up with works which pleased the public of the times, as Sou Alle made his living by performing. It also might be that his work with popular orchestra conductors such as Jullien lead Sou Alle to compose using more structured forms in his Waltzes, Polka, Boléros, Polonaises and other dance forms which need a structured form to be able to correspond to these dances. The large number of opera fantasies and Sou Alle's passage at the Opéra-Comique and the theatres in London would seem to indicate that his tastes ran to the clear phrase structures and formal conception of the bel canto style.

The bottom line is that the piano parts are more interesting in Sou Alle's work, and the way the phrases are presented and developed is evidence of much more musical sophistication than in Singelée's work. It's simply better music. I'm very happy that it's now going to be available!