StoriesPosted 2026-10-21

Who invented the saxophone, and why?

The story of Adolphe Sax: the 1846 patent, praise from Berlioz, his class at the Paris Conservatoire, and how Selmer took over his workshops, with sources.

The word saxophone carries its inventor's name: Adolphe Sax, an instrument maker from Belgium.

1814: Dinant, Belgium

Adolphe Sax was born on 6 November 1814 in Dinant, a small town in Belgium.

1842: off to Paris

In autumn 1842 Sax settled in Paris. On 12 June that year the composer Hector Berlioz had published a long article praising him in the Journal des débats.

1846: the saxophone patent

On 21 March 1846 Sax received the saxophone patent (No. 3226). It covered eight saxophones of different sizes. Selmer's article describes his goal as "to cover the largest number of registers": a family where small horns take the high notes and big ones the low notes.

Today's soprano, alto, tenor and baritone belong to that family. The sizes differ, but the keys are laid out almost the same, so if you learn one you can play the others.

Sax the teacher

In 1857 a saxophone class opened at the Paris Conservatoire with Sax in charge. According to Selmer, he trained about 130 saxophonists before the class was suspended after the war of 1870.

Sax died in Paris on 7 February 1894. Selmer notes that for a while afterwards the saxophone was mostly confined to military bands.

What came next

The French maker Selmer Paris began building saxophones in 1921 and bought Sax's workshops in 1929.

In short

• It was invented by Adolphe Sax, born in Dinant, Belgium, in 1814.
• He patented it in 1846 as a family of saxophones in different sizes.
• That is why fingerings you learn on alto work almost the same on tenor, soprano and baritone.