Adolphe Sax | MUSIC STORE professional

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Antoine-Josep "Adolphe" Sax – The inventor and creator of the Saxophone and Saxhorn!

Adolphe Sax is the visionary and pioneer behind the saxhorns and saxophones. The Belgian musician and inventor studied flute, clarinet, vocals as well as harmony at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In his father's workshop he perfected the clarinet and bass clarinet, earning him a patent in 1838. In 1842, Adolphe moved to Paris to impress the local music scene with his personally designed and built soprano saxophone. Soon after, he found sponsors and could begin production on a larger scale. The assortment included the entire pallet: sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and subcontrabass.

Unconventional methods of production were used, resulting in brand new instruments based on pre-existing wind instruments such as trumpets, tuba and horn to name a few. These instruments were marketed under the names saxtromba, saxhorns and saxtuba. Sax also developed and built multiple AIDA trumpets for Guiseppe Verdi. In March 1846, Adolphe received his patent and the instruments he developed were adopted by the French military. Adolphe continuously laboured on the optimization of his instruments resulting in one patent after the other. Although these patents were frequently challenged in court by his competitors, he was able to persevere and have his patents awarded. At the height of production, Adolphe Sax employed around 100 people creating multiple thousands of instruments. However, he was forced into bankruptcy on multiple occasions and finally died impoverished on the 8th of February 1894 in Paris.

It is also worth mentioning, that Adolphe Sax was a Saxophone teacher from 1857 to 1871 at the Paris Conservatory. However due to a lack of funds, this position was later eliminated. Additionally he founded a school for the saxophone as well as for the other instruments he created. In 1858 he was the director of the stage orchestra of the Paris Opera.