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I recently learnt that the saxophone was named after Adolphe Sax, the man responsible for its invention.

He also invented the saxotromba, the saxhorn, and the saxtuba.

A tweet which went viral piqued my interest and I soon went down the Sax rabbit hole, finding out nuggets like his neighbours growing up called him “little Sax, the ghost” because he so often flirted with death.

In fact, according to All That’s Interesting, he cheated death seven times:

Hit on the head with a brick. Swallowed a needle. Drank sulfuric acid. Fell face-first on a searing skillet. These were just a few near-misses in the life of Adolphe Sax, an incredibly accident-prone child who was born in Belgium in 1814 and one of 11 children in his family to make it to puberty (barely).

Kenny G is definitely glad Sax survived his childhood.

From a young age, the Belgian tinkered with instruments in his father’s workshop and as a teenager produced clarinets, flutes, and trumpets that were superior to what was on offer at the time.

Let’s circle back to those brushes with death:

…he once thought a certain liquid to be milk and actually drank some diluted sulfuric acid. He was hit on the head by a stone, nearly drowned in a river, and poisoned three times by varnish. He also swallowed a needle and fell from a three-story window.

There’s little wonder why his mother, nerves likely frayed, bemoaned: “He’s a child condemned to misfortune; he won’t live,” and that his nickname was “little Sax, the ghost”.

He reportedly spent a week in a coma and was bedridden for long periods. Basically, he would have landed a spot in the Final Destination movie franchise without much hassle.

After outgrowing the town he grew up in, Sax headed to Paris with the lofty aim of flogging his instruments to the French army.

Composer Hector Berlioz introduced him to Paris’ musical circles and also wrote a glowing review of his magnum opus, the saxophone, in June 1842.

The instrument galvanised the rest of the musical instrument makers in Paris to unite against him.

Today I Found Out reports that they tried “every underhanded trick in the book to try to ruin him, from frequent slanderous newspaper articles, to lawsuits, to attempts to have his work boycotted”:

For example, in 1843, one Dom Sebastien was composing his opera Gaetano Donizetti and had decided to use Sax’s design for a bass clarinet which, as noted, was significantly improved over other instrument makers of the day’s versions.

Leveraging their connections with various musicians in the opera, many of whom worked closely with various other musical instrument makers around town, the threat was made that if Sebastien chose to have Sax’ bass clarinet used in the opera, the orchestra members would refuse to play. This resulted in Sebastien abandoning plans to use Sax’ instrument.

See, cancel culture is nothing new.

In 1845, the French army awarded Sax the lucrative military contract he’d been after when he moved to Paris. A series of lawsuits and legal headaches, coupled with losing the military contract, then wrecked his finances and he declared bankruptcy three times in 1852, 1873, and 1877.

Finally fed up with everything, a then 72 year old, near destitute Sax attempted to get justice outside of the courts, with an aptly titled article called “Appeal to the Public”, published in the La Musique des Familles in 1887. The article outlined the many ways in which Sax had been wronged by the United Association of Instrument Makers and the near constant, often frivolous, legal battles he fought throughout his time in Paris with them.

Recognising his contribution to the musical world, Sax was granted a modest pension which kept a roof over his head until his death in 1894.

Although he never married, he did have five children. His firstborn, Charles, died at the age of two.

By the way, Sax also dabbled in non-musical instrument-related inventions:

…such as designing a device that could launch a 500 ton, eleven yard wide mortar bullet, he called – and we’re not making this up- the Saxocannon. He also designed a truly massive organ intended to be built on a hillside near Paris, capable of being heard clearly by anyone throughout the city when it was played.

That one never took off.

The saxophone, meanwhile, forever changed music and is an integral part of orchestras and jazz bands.

Well played, Adolphe.

For those who prefer to be spoonfed, here’s a video summarising his life.

[sources:ati&tifo]