Adolphe SaxBorn 6 Nov 1814; died 7 Feb 1894 at age 79.Antoine-Joseph Sax, who took the name Adolphe, was a Belgian-French musical instrument designer from age 15, and inventor of the saxophone (mid 1840's, patented 1846), saxtromba, and sax horn (mid to late 1830's). Sax created the distinctive saxophone sound by combining the clarinet's single reed and mouthpiece with a widened oboe's conical bore. His first saxophones were of wood. Although he soon switched to brass, they remain classified as a woodwind instrument. Sax patented many new instruments, but although they were adopted by French army bands, he had no factory production and made little profit, yet he spent ten years in court protecting his patents. In the last years of his life, Sax was living in poverty.« |
