Roman Mars

It was a whole family.

Adolph Sachs patented his family of saxophones in 1846.

There are eight figures on that patent, ranged by size and pitch.

Some of them are straight, some are more like an ophiclide.

But right at the center of that lineup was an instrument with a bell-shaped horn, a reed mouthpiece, and an iconic S-shape.

Military bands, like the orchestra, can be stuffy, conservative places.

You can imagine how they might bristle at a brash young Belgian who slapped his name on a trumpet and called it a sax horn, especially when he starts saying that the military should abandon their oboes and bassoons for all these sax truments that he just made up.

So there was this ongoing debate in the press about what kind of instruments should be in the French military.

Ultimately, the commission decided to let the public settle the matter in the only way a musical debate can be settled.

A battle of the bands.

On one side, the sax band, full of sax horns and saxophones, led by Adolph Sax.

His supporters were known as, no surprises here, Saxons.

Adolf Sachs did away with those oboes and bassoons, and he kept just seven clarinets.

In their place, he had 18 sax horns and two saxophones, as well as some more modern trumpets and trombones.

apparently.

On April 22nd, 1845, two bands, two different sets of instruments, and one audience showed up at the Champ de Mar, a long public park in Paris.

Today, the park is home to the Eiffel Tower, but back then, its focal point was the École Militaire, the military school.

The press had drummed up public interest, so the bands were facing a large crowd.

The two bands played the same pieces of music, one after the other.

The traditional woodwind-centric band went first.