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The origin of the Saxophone - Adolphe Sax

Photo: Courtesy

Even as the world is tuned in for the latest updates around US election results, did you know that today is world saxophone day? An unofficial holiday that celebrates the woodwind instrument popularly used in jazz, classical music, and military ensembles. Saxophone, a member of a family of metal wind instruments with a reed like that of a clarinet, used especially in jazz and dance music was first patented by Antoine-Joseph Sax in Paris in 1846.

History tells us that Adolphe Sax (1814 - 1894) was a musical instrument designer born in Belgium who could play many wind instruments. His idea was to create an instrument that combined the best qualities of a woodwind instrument with the best qualities of a brass instrument, and in the 1840s he conceived the saxophone, the only few instruments in wide use today known to be invented by a single individual.

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