Saxophone Inventor ~ Adolphe Sax

Adolphe Sax was born on 6th November 1814 in Wallonia, Belgium. His father was an instrument designer and so Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age. Adolphe studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

Adolphe's first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet which he patented at the age of 24.

He moved to Paris in 1841 and began working on a new set of instruments, these valved bugles became so successful that they became known as Saxhorns, with a range of approximately seven sizes in all from Sopranino to subcontrabass and he patented them in 1846. 

He also created the Saxtromba, but this was to survive only briefly and the unsuccessful clarinette~bourdon an early design of contrabass clarinet.

Saxhorn instruments spread rapidly throughout the world and remain largely unchanged today. The British Brass Band movement exclusively adopted the saxhorn range and they are widely used in Concert bands. However they never became a standard Orchestral instrument for which they had been intended to be used.

A plaque on the side of Adolphe Sax's tomb

The saxophone made Adolphe his reputation and secured him a teaching post at the Paris Conservatoire in 1857.

Adolphe suffered from lip cancer between 1853~58 and although he made a full recovery, he died in Paris in 1894.

The Saxophone Family

Belgium's Famous Son is celebrated on currency and postage

A variety of Saxophone styles

Light Jazz Sax ~ Cry me a River ~ Tenor Sax

Ravel ~ Bolero ~ Mi~Bemol Saxophone Ensemble

Piazzolla ~ Libertango ~ The Italian Saxophone Quartet

Rimsky Korsakov ~ Scheherazade ~ Mi~Bemol Saxophone Ensemble

Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra ~ In the Mood

Benjamin Britten ~ Composer's Centenary

Celebrating 100 years ago today the birth of Benjamin Britten ~ British Composer, Conductor and Pianist. 

Benjamin was born in Lowestoft on the 22nd November 1913 and was the youngest of four children. His father Robert was a dentist and would not allow a gramophone or radio into the house, but his mother Edith was a talented amateur musician and secretary of the Lowestoft Musical Society who held musical soirees at their house.

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin's mother gave him piano lessons and he showed musical talent from an early age. He later studied at the Royal College of Music in London and first came to public attention with a choral work in 1934 with 'A Boy was Born'. Britten leapt to international fame in 1945 with the premier of 'Peter Grimes'.

Peter Pears in 'Peter Grimes'

Over the next 28 years, he wrote 14 more operas and established himself as one of the leading 20th Century composers in that genre. 

Britten's other works included, solo vocal, chamber, orchestral, choral, instrumental and film music. He took great interest in writing music for children and wrote 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' in 1945.

'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' played by the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra

 Britten would often compose with particular performers in mind and his frequent choice was his personal and professional partner, the tenor Peter Pears.

Britten was also a celebrated pianist and conductor who performed many of his own works as well as those of other composers such as Bach's Brandenburg concertos.

Britten and Pears

Together with Peter Pears and Eric Crozier, Benjamin Britten founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival and was responsible for the creation of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in 1967. In the last year of Britten's life, he was the first composer to be awarded a life Peerage.

Benjamin Britten died on the 4th December 1976 of heart failure, 10 years later his partner Peter Pears rests eternally by his side in the churchyard of St.Peter and St.Paul in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

Musicians ~ Guitar Man

Jan Blok

Guitarist

06-08-1923 ~ 30-11-1995

Dag Mijn Liefje

Carla

Jan Blok is seen in this video playing the guitar, whilst Greetje Kauffeld sings 'I couldn't sleep a wink last night'