Sarrusophone - Rothphone

Rothphone

The rothphone, also known as the rothophone or saxarrusophone, is a sarrusophone hybrid that is rewrapped to look like a saxophone. It was manufactured by the German born (Adorf im Vogtland) maker Roth of Milan and was introduced around 1900, but found no popular acceptance, even in Italy (some instruments may be labeled Bottali, as Antonio Bottali was Ferdinando Roth's son-in-law and took over the company after Roth's death in 1898). They are, nowadays, even less common than the sarrusophone. They came in sizes from soprano to bass. It had a less conical and wide bore than both the saxophone and the sarrusophone. As per advertising of the time, the well-known American saxophone manufacturer, Buescher imported a number of these instruments into the United States during the late 1920s or early 1930s, perhaps as an answer to C.G. Conn's production of the contrabass sarrusophone. Per advertisements for this instrument and photos that have appeared in books, the lowest note on the Rothphone is a low B natural, not low B flat as with the saxophone and sarrusophone. In the 1930s the band at the University of Illinois under Austin Harding had a full sarrusophone section from soprano to E♭ contrabass that included at least the tenor rothphone. However, this appears to have been an isolated use of the instrument.