The journey of the saxophone began when Belgian inventor Adolphe Sax set up a small workshop at Rue Saint-Georges in Paris, France in July of 1843. Sax was already renowned for his accomplishments innovating on existing instruments – particularly the bass clarinet – and for his experiments creating the saxhorn and saxotromba. It would not be long after this move that the saxophone would make its first shaky steps into the world.

The Inventor of the Saxophone

While it is easy to trace the first saxophone to be introduced to the public, it is difficult to figure out what was the first saxophone Sax invented. The earliest mention of a saxophone was in the Journal des débats in an article by Berlioz, mentioning a saxophone going down to B flat. This would mean that the saxophone that Berlioz was referencing must have been a bass. However, the first showing of a saxophone at the Paris Industrial Exhibition of 1844 was a tenor saxophone that Adolphe Sax played himself for the jury. The original saxophone patent, dated March 20, 1946, covers 8 sizes of saxophone –imagined from the beginning as a family of instruments. At the time of the patent’s filing, only the first two saxophones had been made – a “tenor in E-flat,” an instrument much like the modern baritone saxophone, and a larger instrument in C or B-flat corresponding. While Sax would later make a tenor in C and noted in a letter that he felt that a saxophone in F would be best for the symphony, the Bb/Eb family became the standard for both players and composers shortly after the instrument’s introduction.

The most important champion for the saxophone’s early success was the French military. Adolphe Sax wrote three letters on the state of French military music to important players in the military, resulting in Sax being invited to bring a band representing his new ideas on instrumentation to be compared side-by-side with a band representing the existing instruments before the Ministry of War to determine if Sax’s instruments could best the existing instruments. If they could, the Ministry would reexamine their military band instrumentation. Between issues finding skilled players on his instruments and deliberate sabotage from rival manufacturers, Sax’s band was significantly smaller than the competing band each time the competition was held. Nonetheless, his instruments prevailed, and a special commission was created to determine the future of the French military band.

The commission invited all major manufacturers to submit instruments for their consideration, although some manufacturers refused to send any instruments because they were unhappy with the membership of the commission and felt the commission was too biased. Sax submitted a comprehensive collection of instruments made in his own factory. His quality instruments as well as detailed suggestions for reorganizing the bands would have a tremendous influence on the future of French military band. The culmination of this effort was a public demonstration of Sax’s instrumentation and that of Michele Carafa, director of the Gymnase de Musique Militaire and member of the special commission. At the Champ-de-Mars, at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, Carafa and Sax were each to bring a band of 45 players. The audience would grow to 20,000 people watching the showdown. Sax would again struggle as some of the musicians failed to show. He would fill in the band as he could and ended up playing two instruments himself. Even at the end he was 7 people short, but thanks to the harmony and the carrying of the sound, Sax was still widely considered the victor of this exercise. His success would end in many of instruments – saxophones, saxhorns, and saxotrombas, being included in the final band composition guidelines for the military. As the sole provider of these instruments, this would set Sax up for much financial success. But it also set him against the well-established Parisian names he had pushed out of receiving patronage from the military.

The time immediately following this success during the reign of King Louis-Philippe was a high point in Adolphe Sax’s career. The years after would be beset by political and legal turmoil. Sax would see all his military contracts lost after a people’s government was established in the 1848 revolution. Then he would regain a part, though not the whole, of his earlier fortunes with the military after Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) came to power. Due to the changes in government, many of the decisions on patents for Sax’s inventions were overturned (though not the saxophone) and Sax himself would spend a substantial amount of time and money at court defending his patents. The ultimate outcomes of these cases would vary. The patent for the saxophone expired in 1865, opening the gates for Sax’s competitors to profit from his inventions.

Sax exhibited one last time at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 with notable success – awarded the Grand Prix, the highest award possible. He was also the only manufacturer awarded a gold metal in the brasswind category. By 1877 ongoing political and legal difficulties would force Sax to declare bankruptcy and sell his entire personal collection of instruments, including the first ever C soprano, Eb alto, and Eb baritone for the meager sum of 12,000 francs. He would even be unable the 1878 Paris International Exposition because he could not afford the entry fee. The Adolphe Sax name would be continued by his son, Adolphe-Edouard, but ongoing financial difficulties lead to the Sax company being purchased by Selmer in 1929.