Selmer Size

Review(Wenche Selmer) influenced scores of young architects with her technical attainments and her pragmatic, perceptive understanding of residential architecture. — Residential Architect

The book pay tribute to Selmer’s accomplishments while celebrating wood’s enduring appeal and warmth. — Azure, Dec. 2006

About the AuthorElisabeth Tostrup is a professor of architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, where she worked together with Wenche Selmer.

Selmer Size

Whether set along the picturesque coast of Norway or in it is remote mountains and forests, architect Wenche Selmer’s wooden cabins and houses blend without apparent effort into their surroundings. Combining local building traditions with modern conveniences, her designs arouse Norway in all it is rugged beauty and smart Scandinavian pragmatism. Just looking at these cabins is an invitation to sit down at the lovingly designed dining table for a hearty meal, or to curl up with a book on one of the inviting corner sofas while enjoying the panoramic view through huge glass windows. These are houses that, while thoughtfully designed and beautifully crafted, were meant initial and foremost to be lived in, and it is this accommodation of high design and livability that is partly responsible for their universal appeal.

Norwegian Wood is the introductory book on the life and architecture of Wenche Selmer (19201998)one of the few women who gained prominence among European architects in the mid-twentieth century. Fourteen of her finelooking wooden cabins and houses are featured in elaborated descriptions, plans, and a wealth of archival images and newly commissioned color photography. Whether you’re planning to build your own vacation home, have always loved Scandinavian design or plainly take pleasure in the warmth and sensuality of wooden architecture, you’ll find a great deal of inspiration here.

Many instructors will commend the Selmer S80 mouthpiece to students that have been playing for a little while on the normally cheap mouthpiece that came with their sax when they purchased or rented it. These are ordinarily very cheap plastic ones and a beginner will outgrow them quickly.

Probably the most commended is the Selmer C star, (Selmer C*) because of it’s medium size (opening, see under for explanation). It’s been a good deal of years since I’ve played on a Selmer C Star but a beginner moving up to one of these from a cheap one will instantaneously detect a divergence in their sound and the way it feels… a noticeable step up.

Many refer to this as a “step up” mouthpiece. If you’ve been around a saxophone for any amount of time you’ll recognise that Selmer is one of the top names in the world for their quality saxophones, and yes, mouthpiece’s too.

I’ve always said that your mouthpiece and reed setup is even more primary than your saxophone. Obviously we all look for a beauteous feeling, top quality horn we may afford but as you’re coming up to your pro model you may still have huge success formulating your tone with a good mouthpiece… even if you don’t have a great saxophone. The opposite is not true… you can’t play a top quality pro sax with a cheap plastic mouthpiece and get a great sound.

Every mouthpiece manufacturer has a somewhat dissimilar way of categorizing and labeling their mouthpiece sizes and the Selmer mouthpiece measuring system uses letters rather of numbers to rate the size of the mouthpiece: Letters A through H… A being the more closed, the smallest distance from the reed to the mouthpiece. H is the most opened.

The C is a medium to medium closed making it a good choice for beginners to get a good, full and warm sound. A closed mouthpiece will give a darker tone and a in truth opened one will give rise to a more splendid tone.

Of course the player may still get dissimilar types of tones from any mouthpiece with the embouchure, reed size, air etc but the mouthpiece may be the divergence in this being easy or hard. The mouthpiece itself is a huge part of the overall picture but don’t forget that embouchure, breathing technique, reed type and reed strength and your saxophone all play into it.

And yes, you may get the Selmer S80 for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes.

Selmer Size Image

Selmer Size Photo

Selmer Size Photo

Selmer Size Image

Most helpful client reviews

4 of 4 persons found the following review helpful.
A spectacular book when it comes to a spectacular architecht and her work
By J. Wilton
I am biased by the fact that I am so very fond of the work done by Wenche Selmer. That being said the author has done a spectacular occupation of showcasing Selmer’s accomplishments. Beautiful photographs abound and the text is rather substantive. My only complaint is that the floor plans that are included in general have no captions or notes and many times no dimensions. Those floorplans that do have notes are in norwegian and as a result I expended a reasonable amount of time attempting to puzzle out where the photographs were taken relative to the layout of the respective buildings.

4 of 4 humans found the following review helpful.
An extrodinary visual representation of an extrordinary architect
By David Hirzel
The Norwegian contribution to mid century innovative architecture is not well known – let along the contribution by a mid century woman architect. With beauteous color photographs, plans and construction details, this activity of formally presenting something of the work of Wenche Selmer is a visual treat and a learning experience. The collection of cabins and second homes provides an in depth look at the results of carefull attention to the details of a home environment. As we seek number of things from which only one can be chosen to big and over the top houses, the book is a will have to for any person who wishes for the beauty of simplicity and any person fascinated in wood architecture.

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