Sax

Adolphe

A man of genius in Dinant

Albert Remy
Edition de l’Association Internationale Adolphe Sax
 The saxophone: “In my view, its greatest merit lies in the varied beauty of its tone which can range
from being deep and serene, to being passionate, fantastical or melancholic, or alternatively
haunting and distant like the soft soft resonance of an echo, like the faint whisper of a forest breeze
or the mysterious vibrations of a bell at eventide interminably reverberating through the stillness
after being struck. I know of no other musical instrument which possesses this curious sonority
welling up on the very threshold of silence”. Hector Berlioz

Adolphe Sax, a
Dinantais of genius
“... Although he was no doubt a punctilious, proud and legitimately ambitious man, he nonetheless
won the esteem of a number of his adversaries. In the history of his time, Sax will remain a wind
instrument maker of genius”.
Malou Haine

With great names such as Joachim Patenier (1485-1524),

the creator of paysagisme (“landscapism”), Antoine Wiertz
(1806-1865), the lyric painter, and a host of sculptors,
painters, musicians, copper craftsmen and others, Dinant
can be truly proud of having offered many fine artists. One
of these, Antoine-Joseph, otherwise known as Adolphe Sax,
was born within the city walls on 6 November 1814 and was
destined to become an ingenious and imaginative inventor
and manufacturer of musical instruments.
In 1860, the chronicler, Oscar Comettant, wrote: “Through
the services he has rendered to the art of making music,
through the hardship which he has had to face in order

to bring his inventions to fruition and defend them from despoilment and through the
recompense which he has received from all the industrialized nations, (the life of Adolphe
Sax) takes on the dimensions of a major event in the history of society. Indeed, the novelist
would find in his strange life much material for mysterious and even moving vicissitudes
(as a footnote to this we may add that the “Sax case” would provide legal scholars with
almost inexhaustible insight into matters of jurisprudence), while moralists would find in
his story a certain sense of abnegation, physical courage and perseverance of which only a
person endowed with a truly elevated spirit and a generous heart is capable.”

A troubled childhood
Adolphe Sax: “A man whose spirit is incisive, lucid, determined and persevering against all odds, a man
capable of skill, (...) careful calculation, an acoustician with a fascination for devising, machining and
moulding matter. A man of thought and action, inventiveness and impeccable execution”.
Hector Berlioz, 12 June 1842, in “Le Journal des Débats”

A ntoine-Joseph Sax was born in the street which has borne his name since 1896 in a
modest dwelling which was destroyed in 1914. In the place where his house once stood,
there is now a large building with shops.
On the wall of this building there is an inscription engraved in the stone and covered
with a brass plaque: “Ici naquit Adolphe Sax. 1814-1894”. (“Birthplace of Adolphe Sax.
1814-1894”). The solemn inauguration of this inscription took place on 27 June 1954 at
the initiative of the Syndicat d’Initiative et de Tourisme (local tourist agency) under the
mayorship of Mr. Léon Sasserath. It is the work of Mr. Jean Jadin who drew the cartoon and
of Miss. Maggy Arzée, who were trained by Miss Yvonne Gérard and Mr. Perot, both teachers
of graphic arts and decoration in the Namur Academy of Fine Arts then directed by Mr.
Lambeau. The work was completed under the supervision of Professor Van de Capelle.(1)
Born the son of Charles-Joseph (1791-1865) and Marie-Joseph Masson (1813-1861),
Antoine-Joseph was the eldest of eleven children (six boys and five girls, of whom only four
subsequently survived, the others having died between the age of 20 and 25).
Sax had a tragic childhood. When still a mere toddler, Antoine-Joseph fell down three
flights of stairs and hit his head against a stone and was thought to be dead. At the age of
3, he swallowed a cup of water injected with vitriol, then a pin. Later, he received serious
burns when some gunpowder exploded. He fell on a cast iron stove and was burned on one
side. He almost died three times of poisoning and suffocation in his bedroom where newly
varnished objects were left lying around during the night. On another occasion, he was hit
on the head by a paving stone. He fell into a river and was rescued in the nick of time.
“There is a curse on this child. He will not live”, said his mother. In the neighbourhood, he
was known as “Sax the little ghost”.
Alas, these first serious incidents were but a prelude to a life full of vicissitudes such as
few have ever experienced. In 1858, after contracting lip cancer, Adolphe Sax was to be
miraculously saved by a black doctor who knew the healing properties of certain Indian
plants. No-one knows what would have happened if not for this unorthodox treatment.

Charles-Joseph Sax.
A carpenter and cabinetmaker by trade, Charles-Joseph
Sax quickly gained success when he branched out into
the manufacture of musical instruments. Indeed, he had a
large workshop in the “rue Neuve”. He in fact gained such
a reputation in this field that in 1815 (when his eldest
was only one year old), he set up a workshop in Brussels
(where the brothers and sisters of Antoine-Joseph were
to be born). He was living in Brussels when he was called
by William I of Orange (this was the time of the Dutch
occupation of Belgium), who appointed him instrument
maker to the Court and entrusted him with the task of
providing suitable musical instruments for the Belgian
regiments.(1)
Charles-Joseph Sax was self-taught, and went on
to manufacture not only wooden and brass wind
instruments, but also violins and pianos. He was awarded
around a dozen patents and spent time perfecting his

instruments. He achieved some success at exhibitions where he received highly positive

commendations.
In addition to receiving some guidance from one of his uncles, who was a primary school
teacher in Dinant, Antoine-Joseph, instead of playing and having fun with his friends, would
observe his father at work and help him in his workshop. He was an intelligent boy, and his
inventiveness came to the fore even at this early stage thanks to his love of music (in his tender
youth, he followed singing and flute lessons). He subsequently received training from his father,
who quickly realized how gifted he was and did everything he could to develop these talents.
Far from neglecting the aspirations of his son, Charles-Joseph Sax made him his apprentice
and became increasingly aware of the importance of the boy’s work as if he sensed this was his
destiny.
In 1853, after the death of seven of his eleven children and financial problems with his Brussels
workshop, Charles-Joseph joined his son in Paris. At this time, the master craftsman thus became
his son’s workman and was entrusted with the task of making saxophones until he died in 1865.

A hard-working young man.

“Only the sax could produce a sound imbued
with tenderness and delicate and contained passion”.
Georges Bizet

In his teenage years, Antoine-Joseph was helped and supported by his father. He created,
perfected and played instruments. At the age of 16, he presented ivory flutes and clarinets
at the Brussels Industrial Exhibition. When he was 20, he was to present a new invention, a
24-key clarinet which was the masterpiece born of the imagination of this manual worker.
He then produced a new bass clarinet which was lauded by Habeneck, the conductor of the
orchestra of the Paris Opera who was visiting Brussels and who referred to the other clarinets
as “barbaric instruments”.
However, these new inventions were already causing some jealousy. The soloist of the
“Grande Harmonie Royale” of Brussels (Royal Grand Wind Ensemble) refused to use the
instrument, saying that it was the work of that “measly little pupil Sax.” “Why don’t you play
your clarinet and I’ll play mine”, retorted Sax. The soloist accepted the challenge which Sax
won the day in front of four thousand spectators. He thus became a soloist. Musical works
were written for him which were so difficult that, after he left, they were no longer interpreted!
The young genius thus pursued his work. He invented a sound reflector, a new contrabass
clarinet and a technique for tuning pianos (a process which remained the inventor’s secret
as he was never able to exploit the idea, probably due to lack of money). He also invented a
steam organ “which could be heard throughout the whole province”. This last invention shows
Sax’s predilection for all things grandiose!
Sax’s debut throws a surprising light on his character (he has by now come to be known as
Adolphe). He was a man of energy, courage, dynamism and total self-confidence. He refused
to go to St. Petersburg to set up an institution and turned down an offer to move to London.
This is an indication of his international reputation. Sax was conscious of all his talent
and potential. He was at this time in the process of conceiving the work which he felt he was
destined to achieve. He did this with great hope and inspired by a belief that he had every
chance of success. He felt he must aim high to reach the target and found his little native
country was stifling his inspiration.
In 1840, he presented nine inventions at the Belgian Exhibition. He was refused the first
medal on the grounds that “he was too young and there would be nothing left to award him
with next year.”
Sax did not take this as fitting commendation. Indeed, this wounded his self-esteem and
was even an affront to his pride. He turned down the Vermeil medal which they wanted to
award him with, replying haughtily: “If they think I am too young to merit the gold medal, I, for
my part, think I am too old to accept the Vermeil medal.”

A summons to Paris.
“The saxophone:
the best blend of sounds which I know”
Rossini

Atelier Sax - Paris

Paris, the centre of culture in Europe, was beckoning and indeed obsessing the
inventor.
The composer Halévy wrote to him of the great hopes placed in his inventions by
composers: “You must hurry to finish off your new family of instruments (saxophones)
and come to the aid of poor, forlorn composers who are in search of novelties and of the
public who are eager for these instruments, if indeed they can be found.”
Having received this invitation after the affront to his pride in Brussels, and with his
family problems weighing on his mind, Sax had no hesitation in deciding to leave for
Paris. He left for the French capital “with his head full of ideas but little money in his
pockets”. In fact, he had only thirty francs!
1842 was the great turning-point in the life of Sax. He had a new invention to his
credit, the saxophone and the saxophone family. The previous year, he had in fact been
introduced to the public in Brussels anonymously behind a curtain so as not to divulge
his identity and to avoid plagiarism.
Adolphe Sax was by now almost thirty years old, “an age when a man reaches the peak
of his creative talent and when his personality is confirmed”. It should be remembered
that Bonaparte was 27 when he won the first battle of his Italian campaign. Newton was
24 and Einstein was 26 when they expounded their theories. Mozart died at the age of 35
and Schubert at the age of 31. There are many other examples of precocious geniuses.
In the words written by a former Dinantais(1), “a distinction must be drawn here
between, on the one hand, the man who himself devises the very instrument which he will
then use as a vehicle to express his own genius and who is capable of using mere signs
and symbols to produce wondrous art which issues forth like water gushing from desert
rock, and, on the other hand, the man who must go through the slow and laborious
process of learning complicated techniques required to call into being a tangible
materialization of his brainchild. In this respect, one should bear in mind the number of
child prodigies, whether they be mathematicians or physicians. The first type of prodigy
does exist while the other is not to be found. Sax, for his part, belongs to the select group
of intellectuals who are exponents of matter, not of pure form.”
Adolphe Sax thus decided in 1842 to move to Paris and established himself in a simple
warehouse in the rue St. Georges. To do this, he had to borrow money from a musician
friend.

Thanks to Berlioz...
In June 1842, through Halévy, Sax met Hector Berlioz, whose influence in Parisian
musical circles was considerable, notably in the criticisms he wrote for “Le Journal
des Débats”. The two men talked for several hours, and during this time Adolphe Sax
explained to the great composer all his ideas and spoke at length of his inventions and
future plans.
Berlioz was rather nonplussed and listened sphinx-like. After this meeting, he
told Sax “Tomorrow, I will tell you what I think of your work.” This rather ambiguous
reaction left some doubt - perhaps for the first time in his life - in the mind of Adolphe
Sax.
On 12 June 1842, in “Le Journal des Débats”, Berlioz astonished everyone by
eulogizing Sax to the skies in several columns of the Journal. The article was widely
published in the French and Belgian press.
This was the breakthrough Sax needed to embark on a life of fertile and prodigious
work, but it was also the start of a troubled period marred by envy, jealousy, injustice,
hatred and adversity for which he was only much later recompensed with glory.
This was the moment when the doors to the world of music finally swung open to
welcome Sax. He was at this time accepted into the company of many composers who
placed their trust in him. He was received in literary salons. In his various workshops
and rooms, he organized many gatherings at which he would explain his work, and his
name became a household word.

Sax’s struggles.
Sax essentially gave his name to four major families of instruments: saxhorns,
saxtrombas, saxtubas and saxophones. In this respect, Sax was the first maker of
musical instruments who took an interest not only in one single instrument but in a
whole family of instruments. The saxophone family includes seven instruments(1)
spanning the entire range of sonorities from sopranino and soprano, including alto,
tenor and baritone to the depths of the bass and contrabass. Saxophones gave the
world an innovative and fabulously seductive sound in a new aesthetic form made of
brass, thus breaking the time-honoured tradition of wooden instruments. The form
which Sax discovered and adopted was a parabolic cone. The instrument is played with a
reed. It imitates the sound of a deep instrument played with a bow. This is the technical
secret behind the beauty of the saxophone. It was Sax’s knowledge of the principles of
proportion which gave him indisputable superiority over all the other musical craftsmen.
 This in fact proved to be the main source of problems to this inventor who was no
stranger to challenges. He only obtained the patent for the saxophone on 21 March
1846. He had by then been playing the instrument for four years or more. Under assault
from many quarters, Sax issued, perhaps rather naively, a challenge to his enemies
and rivals: “I will wait another year before I take out this patent. We shall see if another
instrument maker is capable of making a real saxophone during that time!” No-one took
up this challenge and Sax kept his promise.

Troubled times.
“If the violin is the king of stringed instruments, the saxophone is the most moving, the most captivating
and the most pleasant of the wind and reed instruments (...) thanks to its soft and fascinating sonority,
the warmth which the musician can exude and the speed of play which can be achieved...”.
Eugène Bozza

The years which followed were a difficult period for the inventor who was faced
with the unflinching enmity of his rivals, competitors and counterfeiters who clubbed
together to confound him. The techniques used included debauching his personnel,
preventing musicians from using his instruments, publishing poison-pen articles with
hurtful caricatures. The saxophone was at this time exported after the maker’s mark
was erased and then openly reimported to France after undergoing a few changes and
bearing new inscriptions.
Sax was taken to court by people who demanded that his patents be annulled.
One could write a book on all the court proceedings initiated at every level of legal
procedure. Sax won every case, sometimes going as far as to put forward plaintiff’s
claims for damages, until he was finally given complete recognition for his work.
All these legal proceedings ruined Sax and he was pronounced bankrupt three times:
in 1852, 1873 and 1877. However, his staff of around one hundred workers produced
around twenty thousand instruments in his workshops between 1843 to 1860!
Of these problems, which ruined Sax’s health, Berlioz wrote: “The persecutions
heaped upon Sax are highly reminiscent of the way in which Benvenuto Cellini, the
Florentine sculptor, was treated by his enemies in the Middle Ages. His workers were
kidnapped, his drawings were stolen, he was accused of madness and he was taken to
court. With a little more audacity, he would have been killed.(1)
This is the extent of the hatred which inventors have always provoked among rivals
who have not been able to invent anything.”

The reform of military

music.
One of the great exploits of this ingenious Dinantais and, indeed, one of his greatest
victories, was the reforming of military music.
In 1845, French military music had fallen out of use. Adolphe Sax put forward a proposal
to General de Rumigny, then Minister of War, to whom he offered his instruments, to which
the General responded by setting up an ad hoc commission at whose behest a competition
was held between the traditional system and Sax’s new proposals.
A large fanfare spectacle was organized on the Champ de Mars (where the Eiffel
Tower now stands) on 22 April 1845. The old type of military music was defended by
45 professional musicians conducted by Carafa. Sax competed against them with 38
musicians whom he had managed to band together with considerable difficulty, as seven
of them let him down. He in fact had to play two different instruments himself as two of
the players turned their back on him at the last minute!
Twenty thousand people acclaimed Adolphe Sax! Sax and his supporters triumphed and,
on 10 August of the same year, Sax’s music was officially adopted, although many of the
musicians excluded at this time added to Sax’s list of enemies.

Inventions and fine

tuning.
The list of Sax’s inventions and perfection is extremely long. In addition to
the families referred to above, one must mention a reform of musical notation,
compositions, methods (Sax became a music teacher for soldiers in the Paris
Conservatory conducted by Auber), a paper on the influence of wind instruments
on the lungs, a plan to set up a school for budding inventors, an orchestra
reorganization plan, a remarkable study on hall acoustics, improvements to most
brass and wood instruments.
In total, he is the father of some forty achievements, not including a wide range of
rather extravagant and highly imaginative paraphernalia showing Sax to be a highly
inventive and constantly productive inventor.

The Saxophone...
“The saxophone is not a squawking or piercing instrument, but possesses a soft and rounded voice
with incisive tones in the high notes, with full, rich sonorities in low notes, while the medium range
produces depth and variation. With its shimmering golden half-tones, the sax is an instrument with a
captivating tone sensually enhanced by a lustrous amber glow”.
Marcel Perrin

The invention of the saxophone did not prove to be an immediate success among
the composers of the time, despite the many commendations of the work of Sax and
the firm support of his friends in the world of music. Indeed, the acceptance and
subsequent popularity of this new instrument throughout the world was a long and
slow process.
Nonetheless, the enthusiasm of competitors, many of whom were great names,
meant that the use of the saxophone increased year by year. It was not until 1942 - one
hundred years after it was invented - that the first saxophone class was opened in the
Paris Conservatory for Marcel Mule, the founder in 1928 of the first saxophone quartet.
Brussels followed suit, notably due to the encouragement of Professor Daneels.
The first musical scores and arrangements which were published were those of the
 great classics. This can be explained by the fact that
many composers did not think of the saxophone at all or
were wary of using it in ensembles.
In fact, the saxophone did not really take off until it
was popularized by Berlioz, Halévy, Meyerbeer, Donizetti,
Verdi, Ambroise Thomas, Bizet, Wagner, Massenet,
Delibes, Saint-Saëns, Puccini, Vincent d’Indy, Debussy,
Glazounov, Ravel, Pierné, Richard Strauss, Satie, G.
Charpentier, Tchaikowsky, Honegger, Singelée, Florent
Schmitt, Jacques Ibert, Milhaud, Villa-Lobos, Gershwin,
Britten and many others; the Belgians include: Paul
Gilson, Léon Jongen, Jean Absil, Mortelmans, Marcel
Poot, Théo Dejoncker, Van Moer, Dury, René Bernier,
Gaston Brenta, Léon Stekke, René Barbier, Raymond
Chevreuille, Victor Legley, René Defossez, Jacques Leduc,
Henri Pousseur, Jean-Marie Simonis, Pierre Boulez and
others; from Dinant, Arthur Patinet, Pierre Rodrigue,
Alain Crepin.
According to one calculation, there are more than six
thousand symphonic musical works which include music
for one or several saxophones, mainly alto and tenor saxes.
Saxophone congresses and competitions have been organized in many countries.
And who is to say that if the saxophone had been invented a hundred years earlier
Beethoven and Mozart would not have used it?

... and the development

of the sax
Later on, musical formations such as quartets and sextets started using the
saxophone and musical works were written for them. Methods, studies and exercises
were written and many fanfares and civil and military wind bands incorporated
saxophones.
In his book, “Le Saxophone”, published in 1955, Marcel Perrin, professor in the
Algiers Conservatory and creator of a quartet, stated that “the literature of the
saxophone may in fact be divided into three stages:
1. -Period of stagnation: 1845 to 1918: “Rococo” style, rather timid compositions,
with variations on themes, salon music and competitions.
2. -The boom period: 1918 to 1930: jazz, jazz and more jazz... America!... the
triumphant breakthrough when the saxophone breaks free from the persistent cloud
of negativism which threatened to smother its development.
3. -Period of steady growth: 1930 to the present: the saxophone has finally been
circumscribed and “saxophone music” has been defined. The sax has become a more
subdued and somewhat “serious” instrument. In this new more fitting guise, the
saxophone is accepted as being worthy to feature in major concerts...”
 Jazz.
“Jazz is not in the music,
it’s in the way in which the music is played”.
Paul Withmann

W
“ hat would music be without jazz? And what would jazz be without the sax?”
This phrase is often repeated, but one may add: “It was jazz that made the
saxophone successful, and vice versa. As everyone knows, it was in the U.S.A. (South
Carolina and Louisiana) that jazz was born out of African musical reminiscences. As
early as 1850, America saw the first negro orchestras, which (with the sax) bought
fruition to the human voice. Not long after this, in 1857, the historiographer of
Adolphe Sax, Oscar Comettant, said: “The precious inventions of Mr. Sax have born
fruit in America as they did in Europe.”
It was thus in 1918 that the jazz craze hit France, then the rest of Europe. New
and exciting wind bands caught the public imagination, despite the uneven quality of
these ensembles. This was the time of “rag-time” and “hot” jazz.
Although the basic principles of the saxophone have remained the same as in the
days of Sax, the instrument has undergone many transformations according to new
requirements. It now reigns supreme in the world of jazz.
After the period of vogue (five years between 1918 and
1923), jazz was “overdone” by rhythm and noise fanatics,
and the sax itself was discredited. Fortunately, excellent
musicians, some negro, some white, appeared such as
Trumbauer, Hodges, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins
(who came to Dinant in 1962), Carney, Alix Combelle,
Hubert Rostaing, Benny Carter, and the Belgians Bob
Jaspar, Jacques Pelzer, Steve Houben, Erwin Vann and many
others, in addition to bands formed by Paul Withmann,
Ray Ventura, Jo Bouillon who gave new blood to jazz and
restored the sax to its rightful place with more expression
Coleman Hawkins and greater emotive force.
Technological progress (recording techniques, films) was
extremely beneficial to the sax, not only in the world of jazz but also in the field of
symphonic and lyrical music and in military and civil bands.

A personal tribute.
On a personal level, Sax never married. Nonetheless, he did have a lady in his life,
a woman of Spanish origin, Louise-Adèle Maor, who died at the age of thirty leaving
him with five children who were all recognized by their father. It would appear that
she was from a modest background, and for this reason Sax was reluctant to let her
appear in public...
The Dinantais genius, who cannot be eulogized enough, died in Paris on 7 February
1894. He was put to rest in the “Montmartre” cemetery (18th district of Paris) in a
chapel tomb beside six members of his family.
One of his sons, Adolphe-Edouard, carried on with the business. In 1928, his
company was taken over by the Selmer company in Paris.
Dinant can truly be proud of its son of genius, Adolphe Sax!
May his memory remain throughout generations to come!

Albert REMY

Bibliography.
The bibliography of Adolphe Sax is extremely extensive.
The author of this brochure was chiefly inspired by the following works:
Oscar Comettant: “Histoire d’un inventeur au XIXè siècle: Adolphe Sax, ses
ouvrages, ses luttes” - 1860
Edgard Heuchamps: “Quelques aspects de la vie tourmentée et féconde d’Adolphe
Sax” - 1938
Paul Gilson and Albert Remy: “Adolphe Sax” brochure-program of the I.N.R. n° 26 -
1939
Marcel Perrin, Professor at the Algiers Conservatory: “Le Saxophone, son histoire, sa
technique et son utilisation dans l’orchestre” - 1955
Malou Haine: “Adolphe Sax, sa vie, son oeuvre, ses instruments de musique”
Published by the University of Brussels - 1980
And many press articles.

Textes et illustrations: Albert REMY

Edition: Maison de la Culture de l’Arrondissement de Dinant
avec la collaboration
de la Fédération du Tourisme de la Province de Namur
Graphisme: André Richard/MCD
3e édition - Dinant - 1994
Imprimé en Belgique
Dépôt légal: D-1994/0187/1

“A sax quartet can be captivating, moving and even rapturously lamenting in delicate virtuoso
sonorities which never cease to charm. However, being a light-hearted and even “effusive”
instrument, the saxophone in a quartet can be frivolous and even burlesque”.
Paul le Flem
 Rue Grande, 37
B-5500 Dinant
Tél.: (+32) 0 82.21.39.39.
Fax.: (+32) 0 82.22.72.43.