Jay Coburn

And just like his sax horns and saxotrombas, he named them after himself, the saxophones.

Adolph had created a brand new kind of instrument, one that was light and sturdy.

The S shape in particular was easy to hold while marching.

It was loud enough to carry over a parade ground, but with the rich harmonics and refined tone of a clarinet.

This was the perfect instrument for a military band, and it sounded like this.

This is the sound of a saxophone made by Adolf Sax himself in the 1860s.

This antique is being played by Dr. Paul Cohen.

When I was reading about the development of the saxophone, pretty much every article was either written by or had contributions from Paul.

After I called him up, he invited me to visit his saxophone museum in New Jersey.

The Adolph Sax original is a beautiful instrument.

The brass has barely dulled with age.

It carries Adolph Sax's maker's mark engraved next to some ornate cursive script detailing the address of his workshop in Paris.

How does it feel as a player compared to your modern performance saxophone?

Sax had created and patented a whole line of saxophones and sax horns.

But that didn't mean he'd sealed the deal for the French military contract.

He still needed to present his inventions to the military and convince them that these instruments were the key to bringing their band to the next level.

But like any good entrepreneur, Adolf Sachs did a lot of networking in Paris, and he made friends with some very influential composers and writers who really did believe in the superiority of his instruments.

They wrote about Adolf's creations in the musical press, helping him make the case for his vision of a new type of military band.

The French Ministry of War set up a competition to find out whether sax's instruments could actually outmatch the instrumentation of a conventional military band.

On the other side, a traditional military band, which at the time was woodwind heavy, with two oboes, two bassoons, and 13 clarinets.