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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that discovers something new about history every day

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Speaker 1: of the week. I'm Gabe Bluzier and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at the creation of a European instrument that

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Speaker 1: wasn't widely embraced until it revolutionized the American music scene

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Speaker 1: almost a century later. The day was June eighteen, Belgian

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Speaker 1: musician and inventor at Off Sacks secured the patent for

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Speaker 1: a brand new instrument, the saxophone. That actually makes the

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Speaker 1: saxophone quite unique, as the majority of musical instruments can't

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Speaker 1: be traced back to a single individual. As its name implies, though,

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Speaker 1: the saxophone was the work of just one person. Antoine

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Speaker 1: Joseph Adolf Sachs was born on November six, eighteen fourteen,

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Speaker 1: in the city of Dinon in present day Belgium. His

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Speaker 1: early life was defined by a series of bizarre mishaps

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Speaker 1: in which the accident prone child almost lost his life

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Speaker 1: on multiple occasions. This included being hit on the head

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Speaker 1: by a cobblestone, was following a needle, falling down a

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Speaker 1: flight of stairs, almost drowning in a river, almost suffocating

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Speaker 1: from varnish fumes, falling onto a hot frying pan, and

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Speaker 1: accidentally drinking acid which he had mistaken for milk. Sacks

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Speaker 1: was the subject of so many calamities that his neighbors

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Speaker 1: took to calling him the Ghost. His parents, Charles and Marie,

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Speaker 1: were worried he might not make it to adulthood. They

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Speaker 1: endeavored to make the most of whatever time they had

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Speaker 1: with their son by sharing their own interests and passions

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Speaker 1: with him. Both of them were instrument designers who had

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Speaker 1: worked together on many notable improvements to the French horn.

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Speaker 1: Sacks took up the family business at an early age,

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Speaker 1: designing and crafting two flutes and a clarinet by the

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Speaker 1: age of fifteen. He later studied both of those instruments,

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Speaker 1: as well as singing at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty eight, Sas received his first patent for

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Speaker 1: a new design of the bass clarinet. Four years later,

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Speaker 1: he moved to Paris and switched his focus to creating

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Speaker 1: entirely new instruments, rather than just making improvements to ones

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Speaker 1: that already existed. His first invention was an instrument called

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Speaker 1: the sax horn, a type of bugle that became a

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Speaker 1: staple of military bands and later inspired what we now

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Speaker 1: know as the flugel horn. Sachs's next idea was to

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Speaker 1: craft an instrument that straddled the line between woodwind and brass.

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Speaker 1: He wanted something that was relatively easy to play, like

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Speaker 1: his trusty clarinet, but with the rich sound and volume

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Speaker 1: of a brass instrument like a french horn or trumpet.

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Speaker 1: Sacks spent several years developing the initial design in his

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Speaker 1: Paris workshop. His earliest prototypes were crafted from wood, but

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Speaker 1: he quickly switched to brass instead. The saxophone is still

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Speaker 1: classified as a woodwind today because its sound is produced

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Speaker 1: with its wooden single read instead of with the metal

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Speaker 1: cup shaped mouthpiece like those found on brass instruments. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty six, the inventor filed fourteen different patents for

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Speaker 1: the saxophone. The designs varied in size and tonal range,

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Speaker 1: but they all shared the same defining features. From the

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Speaker 1: woodwind family, the saxophone borrowed its single read and large,

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Speaker 1: easy to finger keys from the brass family. It inherited

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Speaker 1: its familiar curved metal body and the music amplifying bell

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Speaker 1: at its tip. Four of Sachs's original designs were quickly

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Speaker 1: adopted by millie terry bands in both France and England.

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Speaker 1: These were what's known as the S A T B

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Speaker 1: Quartet of saxophones, that's soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. The

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Speaker 1: success of the instrument landed Sacks a job teaching a

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Speaker 1: new saxophone course at the illustrious Paris Conservatory. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty six, Sax's twenty year patent expired, and other manufacturers

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Speaker 1: began selling their own modified designs. Sachs spent decades in

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Speaker 1: court trying to win back control of his creation and

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Speaker 1: beat back his competitors. The costly legal battles never went

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Speaker 1: his way, though, and Sacks wound up declaring bankruptcy three times.

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Speaker 1: He died in Paris completely broke, in eighteen nine four.

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Speaker 1: A few years earlier, in eighty eight, an instrument maker

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Speaker 1: in Indiana became the first to produce saxophones in the

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Speaker 1: United States. Just like in Europe, the American military was

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Speaker 1: the primary customer and those early days. However, by the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, the saxophone became a standard feature of

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Speaker 1: vaudeville acts and ragtime bands across the country, paving the

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Speaker 1: way for its future use and dance music and jazz.

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Speaker 1: The instrument finally got the widespread recognition it deserved in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen twenties. That's when jazz pioneers like New

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Speaker 1: Orleans clarinet player Sydney Boushe realized the saxophones full potential.

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Speaker 1: Baschet was often drowned out by his bandmates louder instruments,

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Speaker 1: so he tried out a soprano saxophone and was blown

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Speaker 1: away by the results. Other players in the jazz world

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Speaker 1: took notice as well, and pretty soon the instrument became

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Speaker 1: synonymous with the growing genre. It was later incorporated into

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Speaker 1: pop and rock and roll music as well, including by

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Speaker 1: artists like Bill Withers, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, and

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Speaker 1: Pink Floyd. Ironically, and snobbishly, those connections to popular music

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Speaker 1: lead many in the world of classical music to dismiss

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Speaker 1: the saxophone as a gaudy, low brow instrument. As a result,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't feature very often in orchestras. That's a shame, too,

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Speaker 1: as the instrument offers a distinct sound compared to many

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Speaker 1: staples of the orchestra. Classical concert goers may be missing

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Speaker 1: out then, but for those of us willing to slum

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Speaker 1: it with jazz, pop and rock at off, Sacks's greatest

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Speaker 1: invention will always have a place on the stage. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about music history today than you did yesterday. If you'd

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Speaker 1: like to keep up with the show, consider following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC Show.

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Speaker 1: You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or you can write to me directly at this Day

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Speaker 1: at iHeart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another Day in History.

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Speaker 1: Class H