Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Wallonia, Belgium.
His father, Charles-Joseph Sax, was an instrument designer himself, who made several changes to
the design of the horn.
Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age, entering two of
his...
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Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Wallonia, Belgium.
His father, Charles-Joseph Sax, was an instrument designer himself, who made several changes to
the design of the 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 fifteen.
He subsequently studied those two
instruments at the Royal School of Singing in Brussels.
Having left the school, Sax began to experiment with new instrument designs, while his father
continued to produce conventional instruments to bring money into the household.
Adolphe s first
important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design which he patented at the age of
twenty-four.
In 1841, Sax relocated permanently to Paris and
began work on a new set of instruments which were exhibited there in 1844.
These were valved
bugles, and although he had not invented the instrument itself, his examples were so much more
successful than those of his rivals that they be
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