If you’re a saxophone player, or even if you’re just a fan of the instrument, today is a day that really should be marked on your calender. It was exactly 195 years ago today that the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax, was born in Dinant, Belgium.
Adolphe, whose father Charles-Joseph, was also an instrument maker, received a patent for the saxophone in 1846. By this date he had, on paper, designed a full family of saxophones ranging from the sopranino to the subcontrabass. The first saxophone that Adolphe demonstrated was a bass. This occurred around 1842.
So to commemorate the birth of the man who gave us an instrument that forever changed the musical landscape, and for many of us here, changed our lives, I thought it would be interesting to check out how the town in which he was born, recognized where he resided.
Please note, I have optimized all these photos slightly for the web. Please visit the originals on Flickr if you wish to see them with a higher resolution.
Maison Adolphe Sax
Photography by Zephyrinus Source: Flickr
Dinant, statue d’Adolphe SAX
Photography by Jean-Marie HUET Source: Flickr
Adolphe Sax – 2
Photography by Sitomon Source: Flickr
Luckily the saxophone caught on like it did, and we’re playing not only one of the world’s most popular musical instruments, but one that’s relatively easy to pack around… Bass & contrabass saxophones notwithstanding… But even those of us that play behemoths like that these should to be grateful. Can you imagine what kinds of cars we’d have to have if this Adolphe Sax invention had caught on instead on the saxophone? 😉
Actually Gandalfe posted a really interesting history about Adolphe’s childhood on the Woodwind Forum. Gandalfe found it on a site from Dinant, Belgium that explores the city’s history. This interesting bit of history tells us how close we came to not even having saxophones:
Antoine was a chemist, but Antoine is no more.
What Antoine thought was H2O was H2SO4.
Seriously, how does someone (even a child) swallow an entire bowl of acid without noticing it isn’t water?
Makes you wonder if he had any taste buds. 😛 Or any sense of feeling. 😯
The mishaps didn’t stop when he was a child. I don’t have the link book marked, but I can find it again. There was an incident, in France I believe, where it is believed there was an assassination attempt made, but the assassin got the wrong man.
Yes Happy Sax day.
Thanks to him, we all play the most amazing and versatile instrument (I think) and as many people throughout the world have said for the past one hundred years “the saxophone is the instrument that sounds most like the human voice” and I can for one appreciate that.