Saxophone

The saxophone is a musical instrument that is part of the woodwind instrument family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and feature a conical bore design, which makes them slender at the top and increasingly wider toward the bottom. Sound is produced by blowing air across a wooden reed attached to the instrument's mouthpiece. Saxophone players create different tones by manipulating the keys that run along the length of the saxophone. Several types of saxophones, such as the alto and tenor saxophone, produce different ranges of sound.

Belgian musician and instrument maker Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846. During his lifetime, the instrument was used almost exclusively in military bands for its forceful sound. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, African American jazz musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana, adopted the instrument. The popularity of the saxophone grew exponentially from that point, and throughout the twentieth century, the saxophone was incorporated into many other popular musical forms, including rhythm and blues, pop, and rock and roll.

Background

Sax was born in Belgium on November 6, 1814. He was one of eleven children of instrument makers, and from a young age, he learned to play various instruments and experiment with their designs. In his teens, for example, Sax modified the sound of a clarinet by altering its bore and moving the locations of its holes. By his early twenties, he had devised an entirely new set of keys and holes for the clarinet and completely redesigned the bass clarinet into the form for which it later became known. Formal musical training eventually made Sax adept at playing nearly every woodwind instrument of his era.

Sax moved to Paris in the early 1840s and began working to create a new instrument altogether. He sought to combine the force of a brass instrument such as a trumpet with the mechanics of a woodwind instrument. Sax produced the first working saxophone in 1841. It was made of brass but was played like any other woodwind instrument of the time. He called the instrument a bass horn. Later, a review of Sax's invention in a French newspaper referred to the instrument as "le saxophone," and the saxophone eventually took its name from this.

Sax intended for different versions of his saxophone to be used in classical orchestras and military bands. In 1846, he obtained a patent for each of the two families of saxophones he had designed for these purposes. Each family featured instruments ranging in size from the sopranino saxophone, the smallest in the group, to the subcontrabass saxophone, the largest.

The saxophone never became as popular for orchestral use as Sax had desired. It simply could not be intoned as accurately as other instruments in a classical orchestra, and this made most musicians of Sax's time reject it as a proposed addition to a classical ensemble. The saxophone did, however, revolutionize military bands of the mid- to late nineteenth century. Sax introduced the instrument first to the military bands of France, which he believed sounded feeble when they should have sounded strong. Once they began using saxophones in their marching songs, France's military bands projected force and power, and soon, military bands from numerous other countries requested that Sax assist them with developing new instrumentation.

The global exposure the saxophone received from its use in national militaries led the instrument to the United States in the late nineteenth century. It was here, in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, that African American musicians adopted the saxophone for use in jazz music.

Jazz is a musical form played with brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. In the early twentieth century, it was mostly upbeat and intended to encourage dancing. The genre later expanded to include various types of slower jazz, for which the saxophone, with its rich sounds, was deemed especially appropriate. As the twentieth century continued, the saxophone was also added to blues, pop, rock, and other musical genres. The saxophone remained an important instrument in popular music in the twenty-first century.

Overview

Most saxophones are made of brass, though some have been manufactured in silver, gold, and plastic. The instrument's conical bore design lends the saxophone the warm, full sound that has become its trademark. This design separates the saxophone's sound from those of other woodwind instruments such as the clarinet, which features a cylindrical bore that makes it almost the same diameter along its length.

Musicians play the saxophone by attaching a single wooden reed to the instrument's mouthpiece and blowing air against it. The vibration of the reed produces the sound that travels through the saxophone and exits from the bell. Converting the sound into certain musical notes and different intonations of the notes requires musicians to press and release the numerous keys located along the saxophone. These keys are round buttons placed over holes in the instrument. The saxophone makes different sounds when these holes are either covered or uncovered by the buttons. This is what allows musicians to play musical notes and make the instrument produce various other sounds, such as growing or harsh squealing.

Several elements of the saxophone's design can make the instrument difficult for beginners to play. Saxophones are somewhat heavy and must be attached to a strap around a player's neck. Players must also be able to place their hands around the entire instrument, both to hold it in the correct position and to press its numerous keys. The weight and size of the saxophone, therefore, may prevent young children from playing it. Slightly older children, such as those around the age of ten or eleven, are generally able to handle a saxophone more easily.

Another challenge to playing the saxophone is intoning its notes properly. The instrument's conical bore can make controlling pitch difficult, and each distinct pitch produced from the saxophone can also be intoned with a different timbre. For this reason, dedicated practice is necessary to mastering the saxophone.

Bibliography

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