Adolf Sax and his amazing saxophone. Biography of Adolphe Sax (Adolphe Sax)

The biography of the instrument dates back one hundred and fifty years. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian Antoine-Joseph Sax, who is known as Adolphe Sax. The saxophone can be considered one of the greatest successes of Adolphe Sax.

Indeed, the saxophone has an enviable fate. Having been born in 1842, at first it was used only in military orchestras, then such composers as J. Bizet drew attention to it - used the saxophone in his famous "Arlesian", M. Ravel - "Bolero", S.V. Rachmaninov - "Symphonic Dances", A. K. Glazunov - Concerto for saxophone, S. S. Prokofiev - introduced him to the score of the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", A. I. Khachaturian - to the ballet "Gayane", M. Ravel - in the instrumentation made by him of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by M. P. Mussorgsky. The saxophone is not part of the main symphony orchestra, although it is not as versatile as stringed instruments, it adds to their sound. bright colors and capable of expressive sound characteristics.

At the end of the century, it seems to be born again, becoming, along with the trumpet, the main solo instrument in jazz. If in symphony orchestra the saxophone appears only occasionally, then jazz is his native element.

The saxophone is a wind reed instrument. Although the saxophone is made of metal (silver, brass and other metals), it is traditionally classified as a woodwind instrument. It is similar in structure to the clarinet, in shape to the bass clarinet, and the fingering is similar to the oboe. The saxophone has 2 octave keys and 24 playing holes. The saxophone is a transposing instrument. Currently, seven varieties of the saxophone are used, and the most popular are soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. They have a different range and tuning, their parts are notated in treble clef and are written in the range: from C - flat of a small octave to Fa of the third octave.

The timbre of the instrument is very diverse: in the middle register it resembles the sound of an oboe, cello and clarinet at the same time, in forte its sound approaches brass. His characteristic "nasal timbre" enriched the musical palette of the 20th century.

The history of the creation of the saxophone.

Adolphe Sax
(1814-1894)

Adolf was born on November 6, 1814 in the small Belgian town of Dinan. His father Charles - Joseph Sachs (1791-1865) was engaged in the manufacture of wind musical instruments and quite successfully, despite the fact that he was self-taught. In 1815, the Saxons moved to Brussels in order to continue their interesting and profitable business. Already in 1818, the royal almanac names Charles - Sax among the manufacturers of musical instruments admitted to the court of the king of the Basques. All the growing popularity, the enterprise of the industrious Dinani were noticed by the king. He appointed him court music master, directing the energy and efforts of S. Sachs to the production and supply of wind instruments for the orchestras of the Belgian regiments.

S. Sachs also showed himself as a tireless seeker in the improvement of manufactured instruments, not only wind instruments, but also harps, guitars, and pianos. He developed a new acoustic theory about the distribution of the air column in the tubes of wind instruments, which allowed him to more accurately determine the location of sound holes on the barrel of woodwind instruments. It is no coincidence that many masters then copied his best examples. Starting from 1820, S. Sachs began to exhibit at national industrial exhibitions and received honorary diplomas and medals for the improvement and high-quality production of his tools. Only from 1825 to 1852 he was awarded twelve copyright certificates for improvements.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that the children of the Saks family grew up surrounded by various tools and mechanisms, in an atmosphere of creative work of their parents. Four of the six sons of S. Saks decided to continue his work. S. Sachs early noticed in his eldest son Antoine an interest in design and excellent musical ability manifested in singing and playing the flute. Instead of giving in fun fun with his peers, the boy preferred to observe and, if possible, participate in the work of his father in his workshop. S. Sachs tried to support and develop the manifested inclinations of his son, soon making him his student. And this has borne fruit.

At the age of six, Antoine already knew how to make toys for himself without any help, and by the age of twelve he had acquired sufficient skill in performing such delicate and complex technical operations as casting, pointing, polishing valves, assembling parts of woodwind instruments, and running in a horn tube. At the age of sixteen, he sent to the exhibition, along with his father's instruments, two flutes and an ivory clarinet carefully finished by him.

The desire to better understand the nature of musical wind instruments, as well as an increased craving for music, led the inquisitive young man to the Brussels Conservatory, where he learned to play the clarinet under the guidance of Valentin Bender (1801-1873), an authoritative clarinetist and conductor of the orchestra of the First Belgian Infantry Regiment (1801-1873). Knowing how to play the clarinet helped Sachs test the sound quality of the instruments made in his father's workshop. Performing was also useful for him in order to promote inventions.

Saturated music life the capital of Belgium, communication with fellow musicians, of course, had a huge impact on the creative formation of the young Sachs - the future performer, conductor and teacher. During these years, Antoine finally chose the path of a musician-inventor. When Saks was twenty years old, his father entrusted him with the management of his workshops. It was then that he took the first serious steps in the field of designing wind instruments.

One of the significant works of this period of life - Sachs was the improvement in 1834 of the clarinet in B of the German system, which he supplied with twenty-four valves, very conveniently placing them on the instrument's barrel. As a result of this improvement, the clarinet acquired a more uniform coloring of sound, fine tuning of sounds and convenient fingering. In addition, Sachs, by adding a small octave E-flat valve, extended the lower limit of the range of this instrument. Sachs' new clarinet was approved by the musicians and honored at the Brussels Industrial Exhibition of 1835 certificate of honor, and in 1840 the inventor received a patent for his reform. Despite this, the tool still did not find its due practical application, remaining a kind of model for the constructive searches of other musical masters.

This period also includes an original improvement of the old bass clarinet, which has retained the form and device established by Sachs without much change to this day. By accurately marking the bass clarinet tube, the inventor did a great job of repositioning sound holes, eliminating timbre heterogeneity in the registers and false intonation, and expanding the overall range of the instrument's sound. Thanks to the addition of a second valve for blowing, which was generally absent in old bass clarinets, including the acclaimed 1793 model of the Dresden music master G. Grenzer, Sax's new instrument acquired a clearer sound and easy sound production in the upper register. Sachs abandoned the bassoon-shaped bass clarinet folded in half by the Gottingen master G. Streitwolf, and to reduce big size instrument placed in its upper part a metal tube, bent in the shape latin letter"S", on which a wooden mouthpiece with a reed was put on. Sachs decided to finish the lower end of the bass clarinet with a metal bell turned somewhat forward and upward, placing four additional valves on its shank. It gave appearance instrument is a typical outline of a smoking pipe.
Sachs decides to extend his principle of valve placement to the bassoon, at the same time he conceives new idea on transformation cor anglais. Sachs is also developing a piano fixture that would allow for quick register changes. All these inventions promised - Sachs a great success. Before his departure to Paris, he had already received six copyright certificates.

Work on improving the traditional clarinet in B, bass clarinet, as well as the soprano clarinet and clarinet of the T. Bem system brought the inquisitive master not only the first awards, patents, fame, but also created a good theoretical and practical basis for his further searches. It was then that Sachs had the idea of ​​​​creating a different type wind instrument with a completely new instrumental "voice". However, when did such a bold idea come to mind?

This is exactly the question that a friend once asked Sachs, in the future famous composer and the prominent military music historian Georg Kastner (1810-1867). Sachs replied that the idea captured him at a time when he was studying the composition of the symphony and brass bands. - Equalizing the ratio of timbres and the strength of the sound of orchestral groups, he "thought of an intermediary with the characteristic features of wood and brass instruments, which could not drown out the weak, but was on a par with the strong."

Original entry and comments on

The inventor of the saxophone, Antoine Joseph Sachs, commonly referred to as Adolf, was born on November 6, 1814 in the small Belgian town of Dinant, in a family famous master wind instruments. Charles Joseph, Adolf's father, was self-taught, but he made clarinets and bassoons of such quality that he was appointed court music master and, since that time, he received many diplomas and medals, and more than a dozen copyright certificates.


There is nothing surprising in the fact that the children of the Saks family grew up surrounded by various tools and mechanisms, in an atmosphere of creative work of their parents. The four sons of S. Sachs decided to continue his work.

Antoine Joseph was the most talented of the 11 children of S.J. Sachs. Father early noticed Antoine's interest in design and excellent musical abilities, manifested in singing and playing the flute. Instead of indulging in merry amusements with his peers, the boy preferred to observe and, if possible, participate in the work of his father in his workshop. S. Sachs tried to support and develop the manifested inclinations of his son, soon making him his student. And this has borne fruit.

At the age of six, Antoine already knew how to make toys for himself without any help, and by the age of twelve he had acquired sufficient skill in performing such delicate and complex technical operations as casting, pointing, polishing valves, assembling parts of woodwind instruments, and running in a horn tube. At the age of sixteen, he sent to the exhibition, along with his father's instruments, two flutes and an ivory clarinet carefully finished by him.

Adolf Sax began his work in 1840 with the improvement of the clarinet and bass clarinet, and soon set out to build musical instrument, which would fill a very significant gap in the system of the brass music orchestra and would be something between wood and wind instruments.
To carry out his plan, he used new principle construction: connected the conical tube to the clarinet reed and oboe valve mechanism. The body of this instrument was made of metal, and the external outlines resembled a bass clarinet, flared at the end, with a tube strongly bent upwards, to which was attached a reed on a metal tip, curved in the shape of the letter "S". Sax's idea was brilliantly successful, and the timbre of the new instrument turned out to be so interesting that it attracted the attention of many musicians.

Soon there was a significant meeting in the creative life of Sachs with the young, but already quite famous at that time, composer Hector Berlioz. This happened at the beginning of June 1842 in Paris, where the inventor came specially to acquaint the metropolitan French musicians with his new instruments, which was largely facilitated by proposals from F. Gabeneck and instrumental professor at the College de France F. Savart.
That day Berlioz and Sachs talked a lot. The inventor told the composer about his plans and offered to listen to the game on the clarinets he invented and the saxophone he invented, he was delighted with the saxophone, the sound of which was completely unusual and unlike any of the timbres that adorned the orchestra at that time. Since that time, a long and strong friendship of two talented musicians began.
Berlioz invited Sachs to audition at the conservatory. In the presence of a large audience, among which were eminent composers F. Aubert, J. Halevi, G. Donizetti, E. Moni and others, Sachs played his new instruments. Gaetano Donizetti, after listening to Sax's performance, immediately offered him a place in the orchestra as a bass clarinet soloist. Actually, Sachs was not against this, but the musicians, having learned about the honor rendered to the inventor, delivered an ultimatum: "If there is Sachs, there will be no us." This marked the beginning of the struggle waged against Sachs by the conservative part of French musicians and rival manufacturers throughout the life of the inventor.

Immediately after the publication of Berlioz's article, Sachs received official proposals from the government of a number of European countries, including from Russia, on the organization of a wide production of wind musical instruments for the needs of military bands. Particularly persistent requests came from the French government and military circles.
And so, despite the protests of his father, in the prime of his creative powers, the twenty-seven-year-old Sachs left his homeland forever and in October 1842 moved to Paris. The French capital of that time was the center of musical and artistic life Europe, where the most brilliant talents aspired to achieve recognition. Paris attracted Sachs with its prospects, the scope of his creative activity, the opportunity to fully satisfy his ambition, which is evidenced by at least such a fact from the life of the inventor. As early as 1841, Sachs exhibited in Brussels a collection of nine of his new inventions. A private commission set up specifically to review his instruments announced its decision to award Sachs gold medal. However, the official jury, established to evaluate things belonging to different industries, was of the opinion that the inventor, in order to obtain such high award still too young. In the end, Sachs was awarded the silver medal, which he refused, telling the commission that he considered himself too old for this award.
A new era begins in Paris creative biography Sax. He began by borrowing 4,000 francs from the flutist Dorus of the Grand Opera and acquiring a building at No. 10, Nové Sant Georges Street, in which he opened his own factory for the production of wind instruments. Sax met friendly support and patronage from prominent composers: Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Donizetti, Aubert, Halevi, Spontini, musicians of the Grand Opera. However, from the very beginning, the life of an emigrant-inventor in Paris, outwardly bright and happy, was overshadowed by the envy and meanness of his colleagues - French musical masters, who sometimes brought Sachs to ruin.

The program of the evening, in addition to the overture "Roman Carnival", a scene with a choir and a small orchestral piece, performed for the first time under the direction of the author, included "The Sacred Chorale" (an arrangement of a fragment of Berlioz's cantata "Herminia", 1828) for a sextet of wind instruments improved by Sax: trumpets , cornet, bugle, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone. Moreover, the inventor himself played on the latter.
... The program of the concert was coming to an end when the majestic and solemn music of the chorale began to sound. The refined audience of the Hertz Hall, with bated breath, listened to the variations of the theme, alternately sounding first from one soloist, then from another. And at one of the moments the ensemble interrupted the game by presenting solo saxophones. According to Berlioz, a flood of "solemn and melancholy, and sometimes vague, like the weakened sound of an echo of sounds" gushed over the listeners. As soon as the last passages of the instrument disappeared into the hall, the audience gave the inventor a storm of applause. Shocked by what he heard, Meyerbeer exclaimed: "That's the perfection of sound for me!", And Rossini, cooled down with delight, admitted that he "never heard anything more beautiful." From that evening on, the saxophone entered into big family already recognized brass orchestral instruments. It was a significant milestone in its history.

In the same year, 1845, the saxophone was presented by Sax to the French national exhibition.
On May 17, 1846, Adolph Sax patented his invention called "Saxophone". Five months before receiving the patent, Sacks lost his case in court - he was accused of "fraud and falsification." A court decision has been preserved stating that "a musical instrument called the saxophone does not and cannot exist."
Sacks attached a detailed description of his new family to the patent. reed instruments. In the patent, in particular, the inventor indicated that he had made two independent families of saxophones in different tunings, one of which was intended for use in a symphony orchestra, and the other in a wind orchestra.

Having created these families, Sachs pursued a very definite goal - to enrich the sound palette of the instrument with new timbre shades and to cover the pitch scale used in musical practice as widely as possible. The first family was compiled by him from six varieties, each variety of the saxophone got its name in accordance with the tessitura adopted in the division of singing voices: sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, double bass.
Saxophones of the first group did not receive due recognition from performers and composers. The second family gained the greatest popularity both in wind and symphony, and later in jazz orchestras.

The development of Sax's creative and technical thought does not go unnoticed in the Russian press either. One of the publications of the Moskvityanin magazine reports that "for the London exhibition (which opened on May 12, 1851), Sax prepared a whole batch of saxophones - an instrument of a completely new ... metal, but with with a wooden mouthpiece like that of a clarinet. Never before has a tone been heard in any wind instrument so strong, so pure and so pleasant as the saxophone. Its lowest note is equal to the fourth string of a double bass, while its high reaches the finest trill of songbirds. : This huge voice human with an immeasurable range, the voice is thick, full, bright, clear, captivating.

So, according to Meyerbeer, "Sachs was not only a talented instrumental master, but also, in addition, a prominent performing musician, conductor. His theoretical knowledge, obtained as a result of conscientious studies and consolidated by long creative practice, allowed him to realize his plans for and the invention of musical instruments, many of which have received great acclaim from performers and composers."
Sachs continued to make instruments all his life. However, competing instrument manufacturers attacked the legitimacy of his patents and mounted a long campaign of litigation against Sachs and his company, causing him to go bankrupt twice (in 1856 and 1873).

Describing in general creative activity Sax, one can say that, being one of the prominent representatives of Western European musical masters and cultural figures of the second half of XIX century, he made, in essence, a genuine revolution in the production of wind instruments, thereby far ahead of his time.

In France, Sachs from 1857 until the end of his life taught the saxophone class at the Paris Conservatory (at that time it was a school) and published manuals for the school of playing on all the instruments he invented. In parallel, he continued his research, striving to discover data that were still unknown in the science of sound, and tried by all possible ways eliminate the ambiguities that prevented further development contemporary instrumental production.
In addition, he revolutionized the field of wind instruments with the construction of the saxhorn family (used in military and concert brass bands) and the now obsolete saxotrombe (a horn-type instrument).
In 1870, the war broke out, most of the students of the school went to the front, and after some time it was closed. The saxophone class at the Paris Conservatoire was opened only in 1942.

Having lived a long life, Sachs did not live up to jazz and died in poverty in Paris on February 4, 1894. He was buried in the Montmartre cemetery.
The saxophone, having begun its existence in military music orchestras, did not take the position originally intended for it, but went “on a different path” and was soon introduced into the opera and symphony orchestra .

After 1870, a period of decline in interest in the saxophone began in Europe. For several decades, only French composers turned to the saxophone, and only much later did it gain worldwide popularity, when American musicians, in particular, Eliza Hall, who successfully performed as solo artist. And when jazz was born at the end of the 19th century, the saxophone almost immediately became one of its main instruments.

And in the tenth years of the twentieth century, musicians of jazz ensembles paid attention to the saxophone, it was then that the saxophone became the "king of jazz", which it continues to be to this day.

The Belgian master of wind instruments, the inventor of the family of saxophones Adolphe Sax (Adolphe Sax), real name Antoine Joseph Sax (Antoine Joseph Sax), was born on November 6, 1814 in Dinant, Belgium.

His father, Charles-Joseph Sax (1791-1865), was a wind instrument maker. His clarinets and bassoons were so High Quality, which quickly gained recognition in Brussels, and in 1820 King William I appointed him court music master, entrusting the production and supply of wind instruments for military bands. Musical instruments manufactured by Sachs have repeatedly received honorary diplomas and medals at national industrial exhibitions.

From the age of six, young Adolf Sax showed musical abilities. From the age of 12 he helped his father in the assembly of parts wooden tools, valve grinding. At the age of 16, along with his father's instruments, he sent his own two flutes and an ivory-finished clarinet to the exhibition.

Adolf Sachs studied clarinet at the Brussels Conservatory under the direction of Valentin Bender, conductor of the orchestra of the First Belgian Infantry Regiment.

In 1834, he provided a soprano clarinet (large clarinet) of the German system with 24 valves, conveniently positioned on the instrument's barrel. As a result, the clarinet acquired a more uniform sound coloration, fine tuning of sounds and convenient fingering. In addition, Sachs extended the lower end of the range of this instrument and added a small octave E-flat valve. The new clarinet was approved by the musicians and was awarded a certificate of honor at the Brussels Industrial Exhibition in 1835, and in 1840 Sachs received a patent for his invention.

The name of the instrument was coined by a close friend of the inventor, the romantic composer Hector Berlioz, who wrote the first work with the participation of the saxophone.

In total, during his creative life, Adolf Sachs patented about 35 inventions. He improved the design of not only wind instruments, but also a number of other instruments - strings, keyboards, percussion.

As a result litigation with competitors constantly accusing the inventor of plagiarism, Sachs went broke, he filed for bankruptcy in 1852, 1873 and 1877. Sax was saved from the fourth fiasco by the intervention of Emperor Napoleon III, one of his admirers.

In 1858-1870, Adolphe Sax taught at the Paris Conservatory.

Saks was unmarried, he had civil spouse Spanish-born Louise Adele Maor, who bore him five children. After the death of the inventor, his business was headed by one of his sons, Adolf-Eduard. In 1928, the Sachs company was bought by the Parisian firm Selmer.

In memory of the inventor and musician, since 1994, the International Saxophonists Competition named after Adolphe Sax has been held in Belgium.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

According to the principle of sound extraction, it belongs to the wood family, despite the fact that it is never made of wood.

A family of saxophones designed in 1842 by a Belgian musical master Adolphe Sax and patented them four years later.

Adolf Sachs called his first constructed instrument " mouthpiece ophicleid", and the name " saxophone' was proposed a few years later Hector Berlioz.

WITH mid-nineteenth century, the saxophone has been used in a brass band, less often in a symphony, and even less often as a soloist. It is one of the main instruments of jazz and related genres, as well as pop music.

The saxophone has a full and powerful sound, a melodious timbre and great technical mobility.

Saxophone device

It is a conical tube made, as a rule, from special alloys: tompak (an alloy of copper and zinc), pakfong (the same composition, with the addition of nickel) or brass. For compactness, the saxophone tube is bent in the shape of a chubuk. The high varieties of the saxophone (soprano and sopranino) are short in length and therefore do not usually flex. Modern musical instrument manufacturers sometimes produce straight bass saxophones and, conversely, curved sopranos, but this is practiced only as an experiment.

The saxophone consists of three parts: a bell, the body itself, and an “esa” (a thin tube that continues the body). A mouthpiece is mounted on the es, the structure of which is very similar to the structure of the mouthpiece: it also has a beak-shaped shape, is made of black ebonite or plastic, and in tenor and lower varieties, sometimes from metal. The variety of genres and directions in which the saxophone is used has determined a large number of options for the structure of the mouthpiece itself, depending on the desired sound.

Mouthpieces differ from each other in such parameters as openness (the distance from the tip of the reed to the upper tip of the mouthpiece) and the length of the notch (the length of the free part of the reed pressed against the mouthpiece). For classic performance more closed mouthpieces are used, for other genres - more open ones.

The sound-forming element on the saxophone is the reed (tongue), which is also similar in structure to a cane. Usually, reeds are used for its manufacture, but some models are made from synthetic materials. Depending on the type of saxophone for which they are intended, reeds have different sizes.

Cane attached to the mouthpiece with a special device - ligatures, which is a small clamp with two screws. The ligature for the classical saxophone is made of metal; musicians of jazz and other genres use leather ligatures along with metal ligatures, which give the reeds freer vibration.

To protect the reed from accidental damage, a special metal or plastic cap is used, which is put on the mouthpiece if the instrument is not used for a long time.

The saxophone is equipped with a complex system of valves that close and open holes on its body. Their number varies from 19 to 22 depending on the type of instrument.

Varieties of saxophones, their family

Saxophone family, designed by Sachs, consisted of fourteen varieties. Only seven of them are in use today:

Of the seven varieties presented in the table, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones are most often used in music. They form a saxophone quartet. Sometimes in such ensembles the soprano saxophone is replaced by a second alto one. Soprano, alto and tenor saxophones are used in both classical music, and in jazz, baritone - mainly in jazz and related genres.

Most saxophones are transposing instruments, that is, the notes played by them do not match the pitch of the written ones. Modern saxophones are divided by tuning, and, accordingly, by transposition into two groups: in Es(when playing the note C, the E-flat will sound) and in B(when you play the note C, you will hear C-flat).

Modern musical instrument manufacturers sometimes produce special varieties saxophones, such as the piccolo saxophone (soprillo), subcontrabass saxophone, etc., but such instruments exist in single copies and are used extremely rarely.

Sachs designed two groups of saxophones: the first - tuning instruments in C And in F(in C and F, respectively), were intended for symphony orchestras, the second (those that are known today) - instruments in B and in Es (in B-flat and E-flat, respectively) - were to become part of military brass bands. However, it soon became clear that the instruments of military bands have a number of advantages over saxophones. in C And in F, these models gradually fell into disuse and after 1930 were no longer mass-produced, although the soprano saxophone in C occasionally used in the practice of some musicians

The range of the saxophone consists of three registers: low, medium and high, and covers two and a half octaves. In some contemporary writings a “false” register (above high) is used, which is achieved with the help of special fingering, which allows to achieve “harmonic” harmonic sounds.

Saxophone technique

The fingering of the saxophone is close to the fingering, and the principle of sound extraction is similar to the sound extraction on clarinet. At the same time, the registers of the saxophone are more homogeneous than the registers.

The possibilities of the saxophone are very wide: in terms of technical mobility, especially in legato, it competes with, a large amplitude of sound vibration is possible, a clear accentuated staccato, gliding transitions from one sound to another. In addition, the saxophone has a much greater sound power than other woodwinds (about the same as y). His ability to blend organically with both woodwind and brass groups helps him to successfully unite these groups in timbre.

In jazz and when performing modern music, saxophonists use a wide variety of playing techniques - frullato (tremolo on one note using the tongue), resonant sound, performance in an ultra-high register with harmonic sounds, polyphonic sound, etc.

Outstanding saxophonists

• John Coltrane- one of the largest jazz saxophonists of the second half of the 20th century;
• Ben Webster American jazz tenor saxophonist eminent master swing;
• Paul Desmond- American jazz alto saxophonist, author of one of the most popular jazz compositions "Take Five";
• Ornette Coleman- American jazz saxophonist, composer, one of the founders of the Free Jazz style;
• Gerry Mulligan- American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, one of the founders of the "cool" style;
• Branford Marsalis- American jazz and classical saxophonist, brother of Wynton Marsalis;
• Federico Mondelci- modern Italian classical saxophonist, leader of the saxophone ensemble;
• Marcel Muhl- French classical saxophonist, founder of modern french school performance on this instrument, the first professor at the Paris Conservatory;
• Charlie Parker- American jazz saxophonist of the first half of the 20th century;
• Macio Parker- American saxophonist of the second half of the 20th century, who defined the sound of funk music;
• Fausto Papetti- Italian saxophonist, performer of popular music and film music;
• Sigurd Rascher- German and American classical saxophonist, one of the largest in the 20th century;
• David Jackson- an outstanding saxophonist of the prog- and art-rock genres;
• Howard Johnson- performer on baritone saxophone and other instruments;
• Dexter Gordon- one of the first performers of bebop on the tenor saxophone;
• Jean Marie Londe (Londijks)- French classical saxophonist, performer of a number of compositions dedicated to him;
• Margarita Shaposhnikova- professor of RAM them. Gnesins, People's Artist Russia, founder academic school saxophone in the USSR, leading saxophonist of Russia;
• Lev Mikhailov- one of the largest domestic classical clarinet and saxophonists;
• Igor Butman- modern Russian jazz saxophonist;
• Georgy Garanyan- jazz saxophonist;
• Alexey Kozlov- Soviet and Russian saxophonist, founder of the legendary Soviet jazz band "Arsenal";
• David Goloshchekin- an outstanding Petersburg jazz musician.

The history of the saxophone and its role in music

First saxophone was created Adolphe Sax in Paris in 1842. This tool has all the features modern saxophone: a metal conical body, a mouthpiece (borrowed almost unchanged from the clarinet) with a single reed and Theobald Boehm's annular valve system, and had a "serpentine" (twisted) shape.

The first composition in which the saxophone was used, belongs to the pen of Hector Berlioz, who always had a positive attitude towards innovations in music. This composition is a chorale for voice and six wind instruments, in which, in addition to the saxophone, other instruments designed by Sax (bass clarinet, cornet, etc.) were also used. On February 3, 1842, Berlioz himself was the first to conduct this work, and already in December of the same year, the saxophone first appeared in an opera orchestra at the premiere of Georges Kastner's opera The Last King of Judea.

In 1844, the saxophone was first presented at an industrial exhibition in Paris, and on March 21, 1846, Sachs received a patent for "a system of wind instruments called saxophones", which included eight varieties. In 1845, instruments designed by Sachs (saxophones, saxhorns and saxotrombos) were introduced into military brass bands.

Being a connoisseur of orchestration and the possibilities of instruments, Berlioz included a fairly extensive article on saxophones in his work The Art of Instrumentation and gave these instruments positive reference. Composers periodically included the saxophone in the orchestra (usually in operas): Halevi - "The Eternal Jew" (1852), Meyerbeer - "African" (1865), Thomas - "Hamlet" (1868) and "Francesca da Rimini" (1882) , Delibes - "Sylvia" (1876), Massenet - "King of Lahore" (1877), "Herodias" (1881) and "Werther" (1886), Saint-Saens - " Henry VIII"(1883), d'Andy - "Fervaal" (1895), etc. In the symphony orchestra, the saxophone was used much less frequently, one of the most known cases its applications are the music of Georges Bizet for Alphonse Daudet's drama The Arlesian (1874), where this instrument is entrusted with a large solo.

Between 1857 and 1870, Sachs taught saxophone at the military school at the Paris Conservatoire. Over the years, he has trained many first-class musicians and inspired composers to create compositions written specifically for the saxophone. But in 1870 the war broke out, most of the students of the school went to the front, and after some time it was closed. The saxophone class at the Paris Conservatoire was opened only in 1942. After 1870, a period of decline in interest in the instrument began in Europe, but American musicians, in particular Eliza Hall, who successfully performed as a solo artist, took over.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by a new surge of interest classical composers to the saxophone. In the 1920s, he was introduced into his compositions by Darius Milhaud (the ballet The Creation of the World), Germain Taifer, Maurice Ravel (three saxophones are used at once in his Bolero - sopranino, soprano and tenor), Manuel Rosenthal and others. In addition, jazz penetrating into Europe, where the saxophone had already become one of the dominant instruments, was a great success. This predetermined triumphant return saxophone and its extraordinary popularity in the music of the twentieth century.

Among other works of this time, in which the saxophone is involved, we can mention the opera Cardillac (1926) by Paul Hindemith, the ballet The Golden Age by Dmitry Shostakovich (1930), the Lieutenant Kizhe suite (1934) by Sergei Prokofiev, oratorio Jeanne d' Ark at the stake (1935) by Arthur Honegger, Concerto in memory of an angel and opera Lulu by Alban Berg, ballet Gayane by Khachaturian and many other works. Saxophone performs main theme in the play old lock” from the cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, as well as a lyric solo in the middle section of the first movement of “Symphonic Dances” by Sergei Rachmaninov.

A number of solo works for saxophone were also written: Debussy's Rhapsody (1903, orchestrated by Jean Roger-Ducasse in 1911); Concerto, op. 109 Alexander Glazunov; two Ballads by Frank Martin, Chorale and Variations, Op. 55 Vincent d'Andy; Iber Chamber Concertino; "Legend" by Florent Schmitt; Concert by Lars-Erik Larsson; Concerto for two pianos, choir and quartet of saxophones and orchestra (1934) Germaine Taifer; as well as works by lesser known authors such as Jean Absil, Henk Badins, Eugene Bozza, Gaston Brenta, André Caplet, Raymond Chevreuil, Marius Constant, Will Eisenman, Henri Tomasi and many others. These works are performed very rarely. Among Soviet composers who created works for the saxophone - Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Nikolai Peiko, Andrey Eshpay.

Since 1969, the World Congress of Saxophonists has been regularly held, within the framework of which competitions and festivals are held, books and periodicals. In 1995, the European Saxophone Center was opened in Bordeaux, the task of which is to collect all existing materials related to the saxophone and to further promote this instrument within the framework of modern music.

At the end of the 19th century, a new musical style- jazz, and the saxophone almost immediately became one of his main instruments. The specific sound of the instrument and huge expressive possibilities perfect for this style. From around 1918, as one critic put it, "saxophone mania" swept the country. The established mass production of these instruments contributed to their rapid distribution, and already, according to the earliest surviving records jazz musicians In the late 1910s and early 1920s, the saxophone can be heard to be hugely popular in this genre.

In the swing era (since the mid-1930s), jazz orchestras (big bands) came into fashion, in which the saxophone group became an indispensable part. Typically, such an orchestra included at least five saxophones (two alto, two tenor and one baritone), but the composition could vary, with one of the saxophonists also sometimes playing the clarinet, flute or more high variety saxophone (soprano or sopranino). Among the prominent solo saxophonists of this time are Lester Young (1909-1954), Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969), and later Charlie Parker (1920-1955).

IN contemporary jazz The saxophone remains one of the leading instruments. In the second half of the 20th century, major performers were Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (1928-1975), John Coltrane (1926-1967), Gerry Mulligan, Bud Shenk, Phil Woods and many others.

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They say that the saxophone is the instrument that can most closely convey warmth and tenderness, similar to the human voice. Without a saxophone, it is difficult to imagine the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the best songs of Bruce Springsteen, “Money” by Pink Floyd…. and all this thanks to one person - Adolf Sachs, who was born on November 6, 1814. the site recalls the master, whose life story in itself could become the plot of a novel, and also offers to listen to 10 famous compositions with a saxophone.

“... A certain Sax -
Alchemist, power engineer and master,
Herr, naturlich, although not a minister,
Suddenly he invented his ingenious sax”,

So wrote Mike Naumenko in a playful poem "Letter to a friend about music." Of course, the Belgian Adolf Sachs has never been an alchemist, or a master, or even a herr (that is, a German). He was born in the town of Dinant on the banks of the Meuse and from the very beginning seemed to be trying to go beyond what was permitted - he fell from a height of three floors and swallowed pins, drank water with sulfuric acid, mistaking it for milk, was badly burned, experimenting with gunpowder, and once almost drowned.

However, there were also experiments of another year: since childhood, Sachs worked with his father, a musical master, and constantly looked for ways to improve the instruments he helped create. The clarinets and bassoons of Charles-Joseph Sax quickly gained recognition in Brussels, and in 1820 King William I appointed him court music master, entrusting the production and supply of wind instruments for military bands. The clarinet also became the first instrument of Sachs Jr.: Adolphe Sachs studied at the Brussels Conservatory under the direction of the conductor of the orchestra of the First Belgian Infantry Regiment, Valentin Bender. And over time, he thought about how to fill the timbre space between the wooden and brass sections of brass bands, replacing with something common then bass ophicleides - bulky and imperfect instruments resembling a bassoon in shape. According to Sachs, the sound of the new instrument should be closer to string instruments, but more powerful and intense than them.

Interestingly, over the course of his lifetime, Sachs filed about 50 more patents and certificates with patent offices, among them an improved sound system for railways, an egg-shaped concert hall project, as well as a tunnel under a hill in Montmartre, and "Saxocannon" - a giant mortar that fires half a kiloton projectiles that can level an entire city to the ground. And yet his main invention was inspired not by cannons, but by the muses: having arrived in Paris in 1836, Sachs became interested in the upcoming reform in local military bands and realized that the powerful wind instrument he was developing would be most welcome both in parades and at war. The first such instrument in which Sachs connected a conical tube to a clarinet reed, an oboe valve mechanism, and the outline of a bass clarinet, was presented at the 1841 industrial exhibition in Brussels. The musician who introduced it played behind a curtain: the instrument was not fully completed, and the theft of ideas was not uncommon in those days.

Soon, the notorious Hector Berlioz became a passionate champion of the saxophone, who in June 1842 published an article in the Parisian Journal des Debats about the instrument, which he first called the saxophone. He also became the author of the first composition with the participation of the saxophone - Chorale for voice and six wind instruments, in which other instruments designed or improved by Saks were also used. In the same year, the saxophone was presented at an industrial exhibition in Paris.

"Branded" saxophone produced by Adolf Sachs

Continuing to fight for participation in the reform of military bands, Sachs proposed a reform project that included, in addition to the active use of his own tools, and some changes in the training of military musicians. His rivals, led by a certain Michel Carafra, insisted on the same composition of instruments and the same teaching methods and, of course, won over to their side. most tool manufacturers. Nevertheless, in April 1845, a kind of competition took place on the Champ de Mars in Paris, as a result of which saxophones, along with other instruments designed by Sax (such as the saxhorn and saxotrum), were introduced into French military bands in place of oboes, bassoons and horns. The competition, which one of the journalists compared with the Napoleonic wars, was attended by 20,000 people.

On March 21, 1846, Sachs received a patent in France for a "system of wind instruments called saxophones", which included eight varieties. And in total five months before the patent was granted, Sachs was accused of "fraud and falsification" - the court decision stated that "a musical instrument called the saxophone does not and cannot exist." Nevertheless, little by little saxophones began to be produced in France, and not only at the Sax factory: competitors repeatedly tried to accuse him of allegedly stealing their idea, but failed when the master challenged them to a competition, offering to design a new model of the instrument.

The triumph of Sachs could not but arouse the envy of competitors: having united in " Amalgamated Tool Makers Association," they began to act in the most shameless ways. Patents for the saxophone and other instruments of Sachs were repeatedly tried to be declared invalid through the courts, they tried to lure the workers, the wind instrument factory was burned to the ground, and two assassination attempts were made on him. In 1854, the court nevertheless recognized the right of Sachs to the instrument he invented, but when he tried to receive compensation moral damage for the illegal production of saxophones, legal costs and new processes followed.

Sachs himself by that time managed to prepare many first-class musicians, teaching saxophone at the military school at the Paris Conservatory, but in 1870 most of the students went to the front of the Franco-Prussian war, and after some time the school was closed. The master himself was declared bankrupt in 1877, his factory was closed, and materials and tools were sold at auction (how can one not recall the bitter joke “ Satyricon" that if the author of such and such an invention died in poverty, then he is the real inventor). Sachs really died in poverty on February 7, 1894, and a few days later he was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.

It seemed that the same sad fate awaited his instrument: in 1903, Pope Pius X issued an official ban on the use of the saxophone in music, the publishers of the American “The Ladies Home Journal” directly accused saxophone listeners of “ cannot distinguish between good and evil,” and the Nazis released a poster in the 1930s showing a black man playing the saxophone wearing a Star of David. Fortunately, time turned out to be wiser: the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ravel's "Bolero" rehabilitated the saxophone, making it an integral part of jazz, and then rock, modern pop music and R'n'B. The brainchild of Adolf Sax has been changing for the second century and is not going to go out of fashion - and for this we must say thank you to the man with early childhood not afraid to put much, if not all, at stake.

Top 10 Saxophone Songs

Henry Mancini - Theme from The Pink Panther