The Origins of the Saxophone

Discover how the saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s.

[@vacuumlover1]

Thank you Adolph for the bass clarinet 🙏🙏

[@gregmonks]

He modified the bass clarinet. He didn't invent it.

[@vacuumlover1]

@@gregmonks He improved it beyond any other maker.

[@gregmonks]

@@vacuumlover1 So? He still didn't invent it.

[@johnnysalinas]

I enjoyed this video! Thanks for sharing!

[@manweller1]

Thank you 🙏🏽 for this vid

[@lucschollaert113]

very good !

[@StCeciliasHall]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@youtuuba]

I am somewhat disappointed by this video, mainly because it seems to perpetuate the "story" of Adolphe Sax inventing the Saxophone by putting a bass clarinet mouthpiece onto an ophicleide. Certainly one can get sounds out of an ophicleide by fitting it with some kind of reed, but it is not a very playable instrument because reed instruments rely on the length of the air column, as controlled by progressive lengthening of the tube, in order to have control over which notes sound.....brass instruments instead have a wide range of notes per fingering, with the player's varying embouchure controlling the pitch. Certainly Sax was astute enough as an instrument designer to realize this without the (probably mythical) "Eureka!" moment suggested by the story. For many years I have wondered if there is any solid basis for the story, have read every document I could find on the subject of the invention, and disregarding the repeated story itself, I have never encountered any kind of proof.....there would need to be something like a diary entry by Sax, or something with that kind of authority. I have consulted with numerous scholars of musical instrument development, and none of them could find anything at all to substantiate the "story", except of course the fact that it seems to be repeated almost everywhere. And as anyone who has played both the ophicleide and Saxophones, as I do, apart from a superficial similarity in appearance, they are really very unlike each other. The acoustic scheme used by the tone hole and key system used by the ophicleide is completely different from any woodwind instrument, including the Saxophone. It is not as simple as a different key layout, as this video suggests.

[@MichaelHernandezSax]

Yes - I agree, this was poorly researched.

[@gregmonks]

This is exactly what happened, according to Sax himself. He (and many others) took one look at the ophicleide and wondered at its potential as a reed instrument. Originally, he intended that the reed be place on top. The source of this information is Sax himself.

[@gregmonks]

@@MichaelHernandezSax It's right on the money, according to Sax's own words.

[@MichaelHernandezSax]

@@gregmonks the video spends nearly 1.5 minutes of a 4.5 minute video discussing the ophicleide without going into the important details about the acoustics of the saxophone mouthpiece and bore which gave the instrument its unique sound- Sax was a brilliant acoustician that had a definite sound and goal in mind- the video reduces the story to someone that just stumbled onto this while tinkering in a workshop - It would have been better not to even bring up the ophicleide if they were concerned about time and detail. To me and many others the incomplete story just misses the mark. I believe that is more what the commenter above was complaining about. If you look at what composers such as Kastner wrote at the time of the instrument’s invention you see how little in common they thought it had with the ophicleide. It really was a brand new instrument altogether. “The saxophone is an instrument of brass with seventeen keys that has for its mouthpiece a type of clarinet beak.... It is thus a brass instrument with a reed but definitely not, as one [writer] has stated, an ophicleide perfected with a beak, because it differs completely from the latter by its structure and its dimensions." - Kastner

[@gregmonks]

@@MichaelHernandezSax I have the advantage of having heard a variety of types of reed ophicleides, and I prefer several of them to Sax's instrument. For one thing, the most interesting of them are very changeable throughout their range- an ophicleide characteristic. Sax's ideals never meshed with my own, and I found many of his ideas counterproductive and misguided. For example, he had a co-dependent bi-polar-disorder relationship with Hector Berlioz, and together they were hell-bent on destroying the individual voices of the orchestra. The two of them wanted a brass section that sounded "organ-like"- their words- which is part of the reason Sax invented a whole family of brass instruments. Hector destroyed the unique sound of his Fantastic Symphony in order to see through this misuided ideal, and orchestrators have since been trying to undo the damage by recreating as close to the original as possible. For his part, Sax managed to get band directors to put together Saxhorn bands, but they found the resulting mushy organ-like sound unpalatable, which is why today's brass bands are a mix- precisely so you can hear the individual voices. The same sort of thing is going on in the choral world. Some love the affected, mushy, indistinct ooze of the Tallis Scholars, others detest it, prefering to be able to hear the individual voices, as was originally intended. Not all of us are fans of the saxophone, or Adolph Adolphe Antoine Sax, for that matter.

[@gregmonks]

There were multiple inventors of the "saxophone". Sax ended up being the only one that was remembered.

[@youtuuba]

Gregmonks, coming out of left field with a comment like that, what do you base it on? Ignoring Sax's employees, who are you referring to?

[@gregmonks]

@@youtuuba Oh, my, a rude jerk who doesn't know squat about the origins of the "sax"ophone. I shouldn't bother replying, but for the sake of others who might be misled by your blather . . . Sax brought his original contraption to a Paris exhibition. This is well-known. Another fellow was there already (can't recall his name but it's mentioned in the history books- I suggest you avail yourself of them), who, enraged at the sight of Sax and his contraption, punted it across the floor, breaking it. Sax took his contraption away, put it back together with rubber bands and wire, and the exhibition continued. Sax's ophicleide with reed is remembered, the other guys is all but forgotten. Sax never invented anything. As far as the saxophone goes, in his biography he states that he stuck a reed mouthpiece on an ophicleide. He was far from the only builder to do so. You'll find examples of others' horns here on yooboob. Sax did improve many instruments, as he was a superior builder, but none of this claims to having actually invented something every once stood up to scrutiny. This includes his Saxhorns. Sax famously lost the sole right to manufacture Saxhorns to Courtois, for the simple reason that the Saxhorns were merely a modification of the valved bugle. In fact, the modern Saxhorns we're familiar with were further modified by Courtois.

[@gregmonks]

@@youtuuba Here's a non-Sax ophicleide played with a reed. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3SWc4OMm9mcfdE&ab_channel=PeterLeuenberger