Adolphe Sax
Adolphe Sax (not Adolph Sax) was born Antoine-Joseph Sax on the 6th November 1814 in the city of Dinant on the river Meuse, which is south east of Brussels, in the Walloon region of Belgium.
He was the son of Charles-Joseph Sax and Marie-Joseph Masson and the eldest of 11 children, 7 of whom died prior to their father and Adolphe.
Adolphe himself was quite unfortunate and accident prone during his early years and his mother noted this by declaring him misfortunate and unlikely to live. Adolphe followed in his fathers foot steps and began to make musical instruments.
He was a talented
instrument maker at an early age focusing on flutes and clarinets for which he was recognised with awards,
and sometimes not, as was the case with the Belgium Exhibition of 1841 when he was declared to be too young
to receive the award despite his instruments being of superior quality and playability.
Who Invented the Saxophone?
Adolphe Sax learned to play the flute at the Brussels Conservatory whilst also learning the trade of instrument making through his fathers workshop. His skills brought forward improvements to the Bass Clarinet and the bugle, the latter becoming known as the saxhorn.
Even at this early point in his career Sax was to encounter jealousy and objection to his instruments. His Bass Clarinet was only accepted after Sax himself had to perform a playoff against a jealous rival who preferred an older type clarinet. Naturally Sax triumphed.
He moved to Paris in 1841 where he embarked upon the designs for a new instrument, the saxophone. He designed two full sets of the instrument. One for marching bands in Eb and Bb range and one for concert play in C and so became the man who invented the saxophone.
Needless to say the instrument became a huge sucess over time although at the beginning it was struggle.
One incident saw Sax himself have to form his own marching band with his own Saxophones to have a play off
against a marching band with traditional instruments. Once again Sax romped to victory and so the sax was
adopted into the marching bands of the day.
Sax Dies
Sadly Adolphe Sax died around the 4th February 1894. I say around because there is some dispute as to whether he died on the 4th or the 7th.Although the saxophone had been widely accepted by then Sax never actually lived long enough to see the wider impacts of his instrument in the 20th century.
Saxs' life was never what it should have been for such a dedicated and skilled person. Plagued by lawsuits and up hill struggles you would think he might just have given up at some point.
But that just wasn't the nature of the man which is a good thing for those of us who recognise what what a great instrument it truly is. Where would jazz be today without the saxophone? Would it even exist in it's current form?
Long live Adolphe Sax.
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