Saxophone
Saxofón
- Date
- c. 1840 · confidence high
- Place
- Adolphe Sax's instrument workshop, Brussels, Belgium
- Credited to
- Adolphe Sax
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Sax combined the clarinet's single-reed mouthpiece with a conical brass body and a key system, seeking a timbre halfway between brass and woodwinds for military bands. He patented the design in Paris in 1846, covering fourteen sizes from sopranino to contrabass.
What it led to
- Adoption of the saxophone in French military bands
- A central instrument of jazz and 20th-century popular music
- Patent disputes that pitted Sax against other Paris instrument makers