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Web Resources A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SAXOPHONE The invention of the saxophone is due to the imagination of Antione-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax. Adolphe was born in 1814 in Dinant, Belgium to the instrument maker, Charles Sax, who saw his son’s potential at an early age and trained him in the field of instrument manufacture. By age 15 he sent two flutes and a clarinet of ivory to the Brussels Industrial Exhibition. Realizing that Belgium was not the hub of instrumental innovation, Adolphe moved to Paris. Soon Adolphe found himself at the lead of instrument making in Paris, having stepped on many toes on his way up. The first significant offering was his construction of a new bass clarinet, and it is said that this had only a name in common with its predecessor. Another invention of note was the saxhorn, but this is not what he is remembered for, it was left to the saxophone to carry on his name (in infamy). Although he had constructed saxophones in several sizes by the early 1840s, he did not receive a 15-year patent for the instrument until June 22, 1846. It was first officially revealed to the public in the presentation of the bass saxophone in C at an exhibition in Brussels in 1841. Sax also gave private showings to Parisian musicians in the early 1840s. He drew up plans for 14 different types of saxophones, but they were not all realized. The inspiration for the instrument is unknown, but there is good evidence that fitting a clarinet mouthpiece to an ophicleide is the most likely origin. (Sax built ophicleides among other instruments in the late 1830s.) Doing so results in an instrument with a definitely saxophone-like sound. The Hungarian/Romanian tarogato, which is quite similar to a soprano saxophone, has also been speculated to have been an inspiration. However, this cannot be so, as the modern tarogato with a single reed mouthpiece was not developed until the 1890s, long after the saxophone had been invented. Some people have suggested that Sax merely happened upon trying to create a better bass clarinet. The principal problem with this suggestion is that the clarinet overblows at a twelfth while the saxophone overblows at the octave. Adolphe, being the knowledgeable inventor that he was, knew that the particular tone of the clarinet came from this acoustical principal, and that to change the interval that it overblows would change its tone. Sax's intent, which was plainly stated in his writings, was to invent an entirely new instrument which could provide bands and orchestras with a bass to the woodwind and brass sections, capable of more refined performance than the ophicleide, but with enough power to be used out-of-doors. This would explain why he chose to name the instrument the "Sound of Sax." In short, Sax intended to harness the finesse of a woodwind with the power of a brass instrument. However, Sax's amazing ability to offend rival instrument manufacturers and the resulting prejudice towards the man and his instruments led to the saxophone not being used in orchestral groups. For a long time it was relegated to military bands, despite Sax's great friendship with the influential Parisian composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz described and named the saxophone in an article which he published in a Parisian journal in 1842. For the duration of the patent (1846-1866) no one except the Sax factory could legally manufacture or modify the instruments, although this and Sax's numerous other patents were routinely breached by his rivals. After 1866 many modifications were introduced by a number of manufacturers. Saxophones came to be associated, by many, with immorality. The Vatican officially condemned the instrument in the early 20th century, and various governments tried to limit their use, notably Nazi Germany and Japan in the 1930s. In 1844, the saxophone made its first documented public appearance in a concert at Salle Herz, which was put on by Sax to demonstrate some of his new instruments. But, due to problems with rival manufacturers, it wasn’t until 1846 that the saxophone received its patent. In that same year Georges Kastener wrote a manual for the saxophone; the compass of the saxophone was listed from b-natural (written), but in a few years it again had the range down to the b-flat as was intended at its conception. Adolphe claimed a range of three octaves, but the top seven semitones were taken off the official claim because of the poor tone quality and the difficulty that had to be overcome. In 1857 the first saxophone class at the Paris Conservatory was established with Adolphe Sax as the instructor. Due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the class was cancelled in 1870, not to be reopened again until 1942 with Marcel Mule as the instructor. The saxophone has had many champions the likes of Elise Hall (the saxophone lady), Rudy Wiedoeft, Lefébre (a virtuoso clarinetist before he heard the beautiful tone of the saxophone), Daniel Deffayet (succeeded Mule at the Conservatory), Sigurd Rascher, Cecil Leeson, Larry Teal (Professor at University of Michigan, retired in 1974), Eugene Rousseau (Professor at Indiana University since 1964), Donald Sinta (followed Teal at the University of Michigan), and Fred Hemke (Professor at Northwestern University since 1963). There are many other notable performers in the classical saxophone genre, not to mention all the prominent (and much more widely known) performers in jazz and pop forms. .
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