Did
you know that the saxophone was named for its inventor?
Antoine-Joseph
(nickname Adolphe) Sax, born on this day in 1814, was a Belgian
musician. His father designed musical instruments, and Sax must've
learned from good old dad, because he started doing the same at an
early age. He entered his own instruments into a competition when he
was just 15 years old.
Sax
played the flute and the clarinet, and after leaving the Royal School
of Singing in Brussels, he fiddled around with new instrument
designs. His first important invention was an improvement of the bass
clarinet. Another important invention was a valved bugle—actually,
he developed a series of valved bugles—that were such an
improvement over earlier bugles, his invention spread all over the
world and our valves today are essentially unchanged from his. Sax's
valved bugles became known as saxhorns.
After
saxhorns, Sax invented the saxotromba family. Like the bugles, these
were valved brass instruments.
And
after that, there was of course the saxophone!
These
inventions secured Sax's reputation and a teaching job at the Paris
Conservatory.
(Did
you recognize Bill Clinton, former U.S. president, in that second
video? This was made just a year before he was elected president!)
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