Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

232 SAXHORN SAXHORN
detailed in F^tis's Rapports de VExposition and
Biographic Universelle.
At the London International Exhibition of
1862, Sax exhibited cornets, saxhorns, and
aaxotrombas, with 3 pistons, and with 2, 3, 4,
and 5 keys ; and at Paris in 1867 he took the
Grand Prix for specimens of all the instruments
invented or improved by-him. He afterwards
lost his powerful patrons and declined in prosperity
year after year. He was obliged to give
up his vast establishment in the Rue St. Georges
and to sell (Dec. 1877) his collection of musical
instruments. The printed catalogue contains
467 items, and though not absolutely correct
is interesting, especially for the view it gives
of the numerous infringements of his patents.
The typical instruments of the collection were
bought by the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire,
the Musee Instrumental of Brussels, and
the late M. C^sar Snoeck of Benaix, a wealthy
Belgian collector. Sax died in Paris, Feb. 4,
1894.
Among the numerous works written to advertise
the merits of Adolphe Sax's instruments we
need only mention two— -Comettant's Htstoire
d'un inventeur au XlXme Siicle (Paris, 1860,
552 pp. 8vo, with a fair likeness of Sax) ; and
Ponteooulant's Organographie (Paris, 1861, 2
vols. 8vo).
Alphonse Sax, jun. , worked with his brother
for some years, and seems to have devoted his
attention especially to ascending pistons. He
set up for himself in the Rue d'Abbeville (No.
5 bis), but did not succeed. He published a
ya.raphlet, Gymnastiquedes poumons ; laMusique
instrumentale au point de vue de I'hygiine et la
creation des orchestres feminins (Paris, 1865),
which is merely a disguised puff. G. o.
SAXHORN {Saxtuha, Saumtrcmiba). The
name given to a family of brass instruments
with valves, invented by Adolphe Sax.
'No one can be ignorant,' say the editors of
the Method for Saxhorn and Saxo-tromba, of
the deplorable state in which brass instruments
were when M. Sax's method made its appearance.
No coherence, no unity between the Individual
members of the group ; in one case keys, in
another valves ; a small compass, an imperfect
scale, lack of accurate intonation throughout,
bad quality of tone, variations of fingering
requiring fresh study in passing from one
instrument to another. The keyed bugle, built
on false proportions, offered no prospect of
improvement ; the mechanism of the valves
themselves, by their abrupt angles, deteriorated
the quality of tone ; and the absence of intermediate
instruments caused gaps in the general
scale, and at times false combinations.'
Sax's first advice to players exhibits the
power of his new instruments—that namely of
playing in every key without using 'crooks,'
as in the French -horn and Trumpet. [See
Horn.] He also attacked the problem of true
intonation in valve instruments, by means of
what he terms a compensator. Besides these
improvements he planned all the tubes and
mechanism on a far sounder acoustical basis
than had been attempted in the fortuitous and
disconnected contrivances of former periods.
The valve or piston was indeed known, but
was open to the objection stated above, and
was at best but a clumsy machine. He unquestionably
simplified it by causing fewer
turns and corners to interfere with the free
course of the vibrating column of air. It is to
be noted, however, that all the instruments of
the Sax family, like the ordinary oornet-kpistons,
utilise the harmonic octave below that
in which the trumpet and French horn speak,
and thus obtain power and facility somewhat
at the expense of quality.
[Sax did not aim at designing or improving
instruments of the trumpet and horn qualities
only, but rather at adapting improved valves
systematically to brass instruments of the bugle
type ranging in pitch from soprano to contrabass,
the lower pitched members of the family
being substitutes for the imperfect serpents,
ophicleides, and other bass horns then in use.
The power and facility of tone production of
the instruments known as Saxhorns, whether
made by Sax, or by other makers who have
followed up his ideas, should therefore be compared
with that obtainable on these keyed
instruments, rather than with the quality of
French horns and trumpets. The cornet is an
instrument standing by . itself, as a hybrid between
the trumpet and the fliigel horn, and its
analogy with Saxhorns, as now understood, cannot
be pushed beyond the fact that the free
use of the second octave in the harmonic series
is common to it and to them.
The valve system of the Saxhorn is arranged
in such manner that the depression of the
second valve flattens the pitch a semitone, the
depression of the first valve flattens it a tone, and
the third valve a tone and a half. Whatever
the normal pitch of the instrument, the second
note of the harmonic series is written as middle
d when the treble clef is used, b>it when the
bass clef is employed the notes are written as
sounded. The harmonic scale obtained from
the unaltered length of the instrument is
supplemented when three valves are used singly
and in combination, by six other similar scales,
and by this means a complete chromatic scale
can be produced.
It will be observed, on comparing the notes
on the first and last groups of the scheme, that
there is a gap between the open pedal C (No. 1)
and the G^ above it, produced by the combined
use of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd valves, but this is
of no practical consequence on the alto, tenor,
and baritone instruments, as the quality of the
extreme low notes is poor. With the basses
(euphoniums and tubas), however, the case is