Adolphe Sax
Antoine-Joseph Sax was born on 6 November 1814, in Dinant, in what is now Belgium, to Charles-Joseph Sax and his wife. While his given name was Antoine-Joseph, he was referred to as Adolphe from childhood. His father and mother were instrument designers themselves, who made several changes to the design of the French horn. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age, entering two of his flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of 15. He subsequently studied performance on those two instruments as well as voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is one of a family of fourteen
instruments designed and constructed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian-born instrument maker, flautist and clarinetist. Based on an amalgam of ideas drawn from the clarinet, flute, oboe and ophicleide, the saxophone was intended to form a tonal link between the woodwinds and brass instruments found in military bands, an area that Sax considered sorely lacking. Sax's patent, granted on 28 June 1846, divided the family into two groups of seven instruments, each ranging from alto down to contrabass. One family, pitched alternatively in B and E, was designed specifically to integrate with the other instruments then common in military bands. The tenor saxophone, pitched in B, is the fourth member of this family.