abcdone:

gayspacitoh:

eltigrechico:

tilthat:

TIL that the saxophone was invented only in 1846 by Adolphe Sax. As a child, he survived a three-story fall, a gunpowder explosion, drinking a bowl of sulfuric water, a near-poisoning due to furniture varnish, and falling into a speeding river. His neighbors called him “little Sax, the ghost.”

via reddit.com

God really did not want the Saxophone invented.

god works hard but Adolphe Sax works harder

This is just the tip of his very interesting life!!!! His mom once said that he spent more time not breathing than breathing. Also, no one actually knew how he fell into the river, his neighbors saw him unconscious face down floating down a river!!!

But full into his life, he had many foes that tried to kill him multiple times due to not only the popularity of his instrument, but the way he was making his instrument. At that point in time, many instrument companies would buy the parts to their instruments, stamp their branding and sell their products as their own. Adolphe Sax, a man of morals, created all parts from the materials in his own factory- other instrument makers were worried that his method would cause the places they bought parts from to revolt….so they tried to burn down his factory multiple times, and in fact once sent an assassin in his house to kill him in his sleep.

And that’s not even the end of his troubles. Originally created as an orchestral instrument, the saxophone didn’t find a foothold in the orchestra because the instrument companies would sponsor artists and would tell their artists to stop playing and sit out of rehearsals if a saxophonist was in the piece. As a result, less was written for the saxophone on an orchestral setting. As the saxophone got a larger foothold in the jazz world due to its ability to project as a woodwind, American composers (like Gerswhin) would begin to use the saxophone in pieces. However the American Orchestral League, a group that sought to keep classical music among the elite, viewed the saxophone as a lower class instrument- because they associated the saxophone with jazz and jazz with sex and other races you get the idea. So they BANNED pieces that had saxophone to be played for a decent part of the 20th century!!!

Now, there still are a handful of classical piece that use saxophone but by and large the classical saxophone has quite an underrated stance throughout its entire history. Adolphe Sax became the first Professor of Saxophone at Paris Conservatory, Marcel Mule created the saxophone quartet with a flourishing career that has inspired thousands of quartets, Sigurd Rascher helped premiere hundreds of concerti, and contemporary classical music has a large place for the saxophone, but politically and culturally the saxophone will always stand for sex, common people, and jazz. But to me the classical saxophonist is also a welcome sign of resiliency and moving on, even when no one believes in you.

Tldr: If Adolphe Sax isn’t your favorite Adolphe than fuck you