Adolphe Sax
Belgian musical instrument designer and musician (1814-1894) · France · Musicians · Died at 79
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Something wrong?He gave his name to an instrument that didn't exist before the 1840s and now defines entire genres of music. The saxophone was one man's patent, and that man was a Belgian instrument maker with a habit of reinvention.
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About this person
Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was born on 6 November 1814 in Belgium, the son of an instrument maker, and grew up playing flute and clarinet. In the early 1840s he invented the saxophone, patenting it in 1846 - a hybrid reed instrument that would eventually anchor jazz, military bands, and classical repertoire. He didn't stop there: the saxotromba, saxhorn, and saxtuba all carried his name, and he redesigned the bass clarinet in a form still used today. Sax died on 7 February 1894, having spent a lifetime bending brass and wood into new shapes. The instrument that outlasted him became ubiquitous in ways he never lived to hear.
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