The idea of creating saxophone belongs to the Belgian musician and inventor Adolphe Sax. He realised his idea in 1846. Adolf's main goal was to create a new wind instrument that would combine the characteristics of clarinet and French horn. By the way, International Saxophone Day is celebrated in honour of Adolphe Sax's birth. It was on the 6^th of November in 1814 that the inventor was born.

Thanks to the unique combination of wind and string instruments, the saxophone has become a very popular musical instrument that is used today in various genres of music. This includes classical music, jazz, rock, reggae, pop and many other genres.
The saxophone brings a unique expressiveness and harmony to music. From deep and sensual melodies to jazz improvisations and colourful solos in rock compositions, the saxophone always gives any musical composition a particular sound.
Modern saxophonists continue to inspire the world with their music. The saxophone is used in electronic music, modern pop and many other genres, which emphasises its versatility and importance.

A selection timed to coincide with the birthday of Adolphe Sax and International Saxophone Day, featuring talented musicians performing jazz compositions on the saxophone, is posted in the museum’s Phonotheque.

Antoine-Joseph ‘Adolphe’ Sax was born on the 6^th of November 1814, in Dinant, Belgium. His parents were in the business of making musical instruments, and Adolphe began to master this craft from a young age. He spent many hours in his father's workshop and at the age of 14 he had already perfected the clarinet by changing the diameter of the instrument and the position of the apertures. He even made two flutes with ivory finishes. In 1830, the young man took part in the Industrial Exhibition in Brussels, where he put on a show playing the clarinet and these two flutes. Sax invented a completely new type of clarinet with 24 valves, and the bass clarinet followed.

Adolf Sax dreamed of inventing an instrument that could fill the timbre space between woodwind and brass instruments. Timbre -–different shades of sound that ‘colour’ a piece of music. The year 1842, was a turning point in the life of the talented musician – he managed to invent the ‘mouthpiece ophicleide’. This musical instrument looked unusual and had a graceful shape. It consisted of a metal conical body, and a mouthpiece (wooden) with a single reed like a clarinet. It had a valve system of a circular configuration. The first spectators noted that it resembled a smoking pipe, only much larger.

In 1842, Sax travelled to Paris to promote his new invention. On June 12, the same year, the influential pioneering composer Hector Berlioz published an article in the Parisian “Journal des Debats” on the new instrument, the ophicleide. In this article, Berlioz uses the name ‘saxophone’ for the first time, which soon became widespread. On the 1^st of March 1846, Adolphe Sax received a patent in France for a ‘system of wind instruments called saxophones’, which included eight varieties. Of the fourteen varieties of saxophone he designed, seven are currently in use: sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass and double bass. The saxophone is rarely used in symphonic and operatic music. In military orchestras and concert brass bands and especially in popular music ensembles, trio or quartet saxophones (alto, tenor and baritone) are used quite often. The shape of the parabolic cone, successfully found by Sax, and his subtle study of the principles of acoustic correlations are the technical secret of the saxophone and the source of its unique timbre.

Adolphe Sachs died on the 7^th of February, 1894, and is buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris in the family vault, on which the saxophone is depicted. The family music factory was continued by his son, Adolphe-Edouard, and from 1928, the factory was taken over by the Parisian Selmer Company.

At the end of the 19^th century, a new musical style – jazz, was born, and the saxophone almost immediately became one of its main instruments. The instrument's specific sound and enormous expressive possibilities suited this style perfectly. From about 1918, as one critic put it, everyone was overwhelmed by ‘saxophonomania’. In the swing era, jazz orchestras, the so-called big bands, became fashionable, in which the saxophone group became an obligatory part. Typically, such an orchestra consisted of at least five saxophones - two altos, two tenor and one baritone – but the line-up could vary, with one of the saxophonists also sometimes playing clarinet or flute. In the 1920s, the saxophone became famous with the orchestras of Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. Notable saxophonists who played solo include Sidney Bechet, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and later Charlie Parker. The sound of the saxophone resembles the human voice more than any other instrument in jazz. This quality allowed the musician to speak to the audience, and contact with the audience is a very important aspect of jazz.

The saxophone is considered one of the most sensual musical instruments, it can be both passionate and soulful, bold and shy.