History of the Saxophone...

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History of the Saxophone...; For the saxophonists!:)
Topic Started: Nov 22 2004, 10:21 AM (184 Views)
BanD-SaX	Nov 22 2004, 10:21 AM Post #1
Helper Posts: 151 Group: Helpers Member #60 Joined: November 2, 2004	The saxophone was invented by a Belgian; Antoine Sax, born 6 November 1814. He came from along line of instrument makers. His father Charles Sax was 'instrument maker to the court of the Netherlands' and was noted for his development of the rotary valve system as used on brass instruments of the present day. Young Antoine (better known as Adolphe to his friends) learnt the skill of instrument making at an early age. Adolphe studied clarinet and flute at college and was a very fine player. The desire to invent however drew Adolphe back to the family tradition of instrument making. He had already come up with his family of saxhorns (from which are born todays brass band instruments) and redesigned the bass clarinet to a greatly improved standard, but he also wanted to produce an instrument that played in octaves rather than twelfths. His new instrument 'The Saxophone' was patented in 1840. Moving to Paris to further his career sax performed at the Paris Conservatoire, where he met and befriended many of Paris' distinguished musicians. He gathered enough money to form the 'Adolphe Sax Musical Instrument Factory. The instruments were very successful especially with the military bands of the time and as a result he was forever at war with the established local instrument makers; They issued thefts, threats, legal battles and possibly even an attempt on his life. One tactic employed against the saxophone was to oppose it's acceptance into the orchestra, an example of this was when an Opera orchestra threatened to walk out when a Sax Bass Clarinet was to be introduced into the orchestra. The 'United Association of Instrument Makers' was also established in Paris by these locals, one of their first lawsuits was to oppose Sax's patent on the Saxophone. As a response, Sax challenged them to produce the instrument known as the saxophone themselves. They failed. The French Revolution was also a problem for Sax; he had previously been very much involved with the King, and most of the famous players were part of his court. After the revolution the French military bands with Sax's instruments were revoked by the new government. In 1848 an anonymous benefactor gave Sax money to pay his workers, without which he would have become bankrupt. In 1852 this benefactor died, leaving a large sum of money unaccounted for. Sax was soon demanded to repay the money and as a result he fled to London and pleaded his innocence by post. Eventually he returned to Paris and financial ruin. Adolphe returned to the music scene in 1859, (followed by more legal battles), and the saxophone began to creep back into the market. In 1867 the Paris Conservatoire began classes to learn this new instrument, under the direction of Mr Sax, but not long afterwards many Sax's colleagues died. This coincided with the expiration of his original patents expired and by 1873 Sax faced bankruptcy a second time. Adolphe Sax died in 1894. His son Adolphe Edouard Sax continued the Sax factory until in 1928 when it was sold to the Henri Selmer Company. Extracted from:History of the Saxophone


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