Adolphe Sax Monument

Antoine-Joseph Sax, better known as Adolphe Sax, is the prolific and brilliant inventor and constructor of musical instruments and was born on November 6th, 1814. Antoine-Joseph was the eldest son of Charles-Joseph (1791-1865) and Marie-Joseph Masson (1813-1861). Ten brothers and sisters would follow him.

Father Charles-Joseph was a carpenter and joiner by profession. But he soon begins to build musical instruments. A good choice as it turns out. Charles-Joseph Sax is self-taught and builds woodwind and brass instruments and even violins and pianos. He applies for a dozen patents and perfects his instruments. He successfully takes part in numerous exhibitions, where he receives flattering awards.
Father Sax quickly realized that his son also had a passion for musical instruments and made him his student at an early age. Apparently he realized what the boy was capable of.

With the support and help of his father, the young man works on his future. He invents and perfects instruments and also plays them . He was 16 years old when he taught ivory flutes and clarinets at the Exhibition Industry in Brussels. At the age of twenty he unwrapped a brand new 24 key clarinet, a fine example of imagination and master craftsmanship. Then follows a new bass clarinet, much appreciated by habeneck , conductor of the Paris Opera , who happens to be in Brussels and describes other clarinets as "barbaric instruments".

But this creation arouses the jealousy of the soloist of the "Grande Harmonie royale" in Brussels. He refuses to use the instrument because, as he says, it comes from "favorite student saxophone". "Then play your clarinet," Sax replies, and I play mine. The man accepts the challenge and Sax emerges victorious in front of an audience of four thousand. He becomes a soloist. Plays were written for him that were not performed after his departure because they were so difficult !

1842 is the year of the great turning point in the life of Sax, who at that time is the owner of his new invention: the saxophone and his family. Adolphe Sax is approaching the age of thirty, "the time when man's creative talent is confirmed, when his human personality takes shape".

The place to be in Europe - Paris - owned him , as he puts it.

The saxophone gave its name to four main families of instruments: sax horns, sax trombas, sax tubes and saxophones. This is the first time that a manufacturer has not focused on a single instrument, but on a family of instruments. The saxophone family consists of seven instruments, from sopranino and soprano through bass and double bass to alto, tenor and baritone. These instruments give a new and charming timbre, with a new shape, in brass and no longer in wood. This shape that Sax found and entered is a parabolic cone. The instrument is played with a reed. It imitates the sounds of a bass stringed instrument . And here lies the whole technical secret of the saxophone. Sax knows the principles of proportion perfectly and this knowledge unmistakably distinguishes him from all other creators.

Then follow painful years for the inventor who must face off against his opponents, his competitors and the counterfeiters who band together to fight him. His staff is taken away, the musicians cannot play their instruments, hate articles appear with hurt caricatures. The saxophone is exported after the brand has been removed and then demonstratively reintroduced in France with some changes and new branding. Sax is taken to court to have his patents revoked.
All these institutions ruined Sax, which was declared bankrupt three times : in 1852, 1873 and 1877. Despite this, between 1843 and 1860, about twenty thousand instruments left Sax's workshops, which employed a hundred workers

The saxophone was not immediately well received by composers of the time , despite the many positive reviews and the firm friendship between saxophone and the music world. The instrument had a long and hard rise around the world.
But last but not least, some authors were so enthusiastic that the saxophone became more popular year after year .

However, it was not until 1942, a century after its invention , that the first official saxophone class was established at the Paris Conservatory.

Destiny saves the Sax family in no other way. Seven of the eleven children die young and Charles-Joseph struggles with financial problems. In 1853 he moved in with his son, who was then living in Paris. The master then became an apprentice and continued building saxophones until his death in 1865.

The brilliant Dinantees died in Paris on February 7, 1894 . His body rests in the so-called "Montmartre Cemetery" , in a burial chapel, alongside six family members. One of his sons, Adolphe-Edouard, continues to run the company . In 1928 it was acquired by the Parisians. Selmer house

Dinant can be proud of Sax, the brilliant Dinantees!

Willem Vandenameele