The Saxophone

2 Pages 385 Words

The saxophone is a relatively new instrument compared to many of the other musical devices that exist. It’s history can be traced back over 150 years. It was invented by a man named Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax, an expert instrument maker and musician. This is obviously were the root of it’s name comes from. The saxophone was finally patented on March 20, 1846. Adolphe group up in a music oriented family. His father mastered the art of music making and by the age of six Adolphe had become an expert as well. Sax become aware of the tonal disparity between brasses and woodwinds and wanted to create an instrument that would balance these sections. The solution to his problem came too him in the form of a horn with the body of a brass instrument and the mouthpiece of a woodwind. By combing these two elements he came up with the saxophone.
The first type of saxophone was the C bass. Hector Berlioz, a famous composer, had this displayed to him for the first time in 1841. He couldn’t believe how well its versatility, unique tone, and control of dynamics all came together. Only one year later Sax moved to Paris to introduced his revolutionary instrument to the rest of the world. Soon after an entire saxophone family, including fourteen in all, were created. Today many of these variations are obsolete or very rarely used.
In 1845 the saxophone became an important part of all bands in that era. “Battle of the bands” was the name given to this famous year. Sax wanted to prove to the world how the saxophone could improve the tonal quality in all bands. He arranged a contest between the French Army Band, made up of thirty-five men and traditional instruments, and his own band, which had twenty-eight men and included saxophones. Sax’s band dominated the competition and that day the saxophone was officially introduced into the French Army Band.
In our present day the saxophone in widely enjoyed by many people. Whether...