Saxophone

A patent for an open-air orchestra

Few instruments can be tied to a single person and a single document the way the saxophone can. Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant, in present-day Belgium, in 1814, trained in his father’s workshop, and settled in Paris. He applied for a French patent on 21 March 1846 for a system of wind instruments called saxophones, and the document survives in copy at the Horniman Museum in London. Earlier experiments are commonly dated to around 1841, though the evidence for that date is less firm.

In the patent Sax described a family designed to bring a fuller wind sound to outdoor music. A museum guide in Basel records that the instrument was first heard in the orchestra of the Paris Opera on 1 December 1844, rather than in a military band as one might assume. The oldest known surviving saxophone, a baritone in E♭ numbered 2686 and dated 1846, is now in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels.

Engineering a hybrid

Sax’s design took the mouthpiece and cane reed of the Clarinet and set them on a tube that widens steadily from neck to bell, like the bore of an Oboe, then covered it with keys. Because the tube is conical, it overblows at the octave instead of the twelfth, which is why the fingering pattern for the lower register repeats one octave higher. A small octave key, actually two linked vents, selects the correct register.

Bodies are normally brass, lacquered or plated, even though the instrument is classed with the woodwinds, because it is the reed, not the material, that determines the family. Soprano saxophones are often straight, while alto, tenor and baritone curve into a U-shaped bell. Mouthpieces are typically hard rubber or metal. Early instruments such as an 1856 alto in Edinburgh have a wider bore and bell than later versions.

Between the reed and the horn

What the ear hears is a blend. The reed gives the tone a woody, slightly reedy grain, while the conical metal body adds a rounded warmth that some listeners associate with brass. Players shape this sound by adjusting mouth position and air speed, and differences in mouthpiece facing, reed strength and body design produce anything from a soft, veiled tone to an edgy cry.

That flexibility helps explain why the instrument migrated so readily between musical worlds. Its dynamic range is large, its attack can be soft or pointed, and the pitch can be bent, slid or decorated with growl and vibrato, effects especially prized in jazz. Unlike the Trumpet, whose sound starts with the player’s buzzing lips, the saxophone’s tone begins at a vibrating reed, which shapes its attack and tone.

One fingering, many transpositions

All saxophones share a written range of about B♭3 to F♯6 in treble clef, with many modern instruments having a key for the high F♯ and skilled players extending far above through altissimo fingerings. What differs is the sounding pitch. The alto, pitched in E♭, sounds a major sixth below the written note; the tenor in B♭ sounds a major ninth below; the soprano in B♭ a major second below; and the baritone in E♭ an octave plus a major sixth below.

This arrangement means that a player who learns one size can move to another with little relearning, though embouchure and air support change considerably. The four common sizes cover the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone voices of a vocal quartet, with rarer sopranino, bass and contrabass models at the extremes.

Mouth, breath and a forgiving fingering

The embouchure is a flat-chinned, slightly rolled grip in which the lower lip cushions the reed against the lower teeth. Air support matters more than biting pressure. Beginners usually find the instrument easier to sound than an oboe or bassoon, but reaching a controlled tone takes years, particularly in tuning the upper register and the low notes.

The instrument hangs from a neck strap, since the weight of the larger sizes is considerable. Fingering broadly resembles that of the Flute and clarinet, with alternate fingerings for high notes and trills. Jazz players commonly study by ear and through transcription, while classical players focus on uniform tone across the range and on careful articulation.

A family from sopranino to contrabass

Sax’s original plan called for a family running from sopranino to contrabass, and in practice the four middle sizes became standard. Two tunings alternate through the set: instruments in E♭ for the sopranino, alto and baritone, and in B♭ for the soprano, tenor and bass. Sax is also recorded as having made a second set in C and F aimed at orchestral use, but the band tunings in E♭ and B♭ are the ones that lasted.

Shapes vary too. Sopranos are commonly straight, although curved versions exist, and some makers have offered straight altos and tenors as novelties. The Basel museum holds an original quartet of soprano, alto, tenor and baritone made in Paris between 1856 and 1863. Later makers added keys that extended the range and improved tuning, so modern instruments differ in layout from those of Sax’s workshop, even though the family plan is recognisably his.

Bands, concert halls and the Jazz Age

The saxophone entered military bands quickly. The Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels notes that Sax’s dominant position supplying French military bands is advertised on his later instruments. It never became a standing member of the symphony orchestra, but composers including Bizet and Ravel used it for specific colours, and the French school developed a concert repertoire for it in the twentieth century.

In the early twentieth century the instrument became associated with jazz and dance music, and the Edinburgh collection describes the saxophone and saxhorn as embodiments of the spirit of the Jazz Age. Today it is central to big bands, small combos, and popular and rock music, and to saxophone quartets and chamber music, whose four voices map onto vocal writing.

Pads, corks and the reed box

Saxophones rely on soft pads that seal over many large tone holes, so a leaking pad or a slightly bent key can make notes fail. Players swab the body and neck after playing to keep moisture from affecting the pads and protect the lacquer, and remove the reed from the mouthpiece to dry.

Cork at the neck joint and on the keys needs occasional replacement, and dents in the thin brass body are best repaired by a specialist. Reeds are kept flat in a holder and rotated through use because they weaken with time. Mouthpieces should be rinsed gently and kept free of knocks.

Notes from the workshop

• Sax registered 47 patents and certificates in Belgium, France and Britain, according to the King Baudouin Foundation.
• The oldest known saxophone, the 1846 baritone in Brussels, was acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation’s Léon Courtin-Marcelle Bouché Fund in 2019 and is made of copper.
• The Horniman Museum holds a photostat of the original French patent, numbered 3226, for systems of wind instruments called saxophones.
• Edinburgh’s 1856 alto, serial number 15528, was acquired in 2004 and still shows the wider bore and bell of early models, compared with later versions.

Terms used in this entry

altissimo

The extreme high register of the saxophone, reached by special fingerings above the standard written range.

conical bore

A tube that widens steadily from mouthpiece to bell, which makes an instrument overblow at the octave.

embouchure

The shaping of lips, jaw and facial muscles on the mouthpiece.

ligature

The metal or fabric band that holds the reed against the mouthpiece.

octave key

A key that opens a small vent to shift the instrument into its upper register.

saxhorn

A valved brass instrument family, also devised by Sax, used in bands.

single reed

A single thin blade of cane fixed to a mouthpiece, which vibrates against the mouthpiece’s opening when the player blows.

transposing instrument

An instrument whose written notes sound at a different pitch from the page, as on the alto and tenor saxophones.

Browse the full glossary

References

1. King Baudouin Foundation. Adolphe Sax’s E-flat baritone saxophone. heritage-kbf.be/node/1474
2. Historisches Museum Basel. Saxophone: 19th and 20th Century. hmb.ch/en/museums/eguides/a/e/saxophone-19th-and-20th-century
3. Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels. Alto saxophone | MIM. mim.be/en/collection-piece/alto-saxophone
4. Horniman Museum and Gardens. French Brevet for Systems of Wind Instruments called Saxophone. horniman.ac.uk/object/ARC/CAR/001/020
5. University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Alto saxophone, nominal pitch: E♭ | Adolphe Sax | 1856. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/96098

Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.