Sigma Alpha Iota

14 Winter 2024 • sai-national.org 14 Winter 2024 • sai-national.org A Wld of Music A Visit to the Land of Sax By Christine Bruns, PAN PIPES Editor T aking full advantage of my time living in Belgium, I recently visited the small riverside town of Dinant. Why there, you may ask? It happens to be the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the musical instrument maker who invented, among many other instruments, the saxophone. Adolphe Sax, born Antoine-Joseph on November 6, 1814 into a family of musical instrument makers, began making his own version of instruments at a young age and studied performance on flute, clarinet, and voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He relocated to Paris in his twenties to continue working on new instrument designs of his own, including bugles, trombones, and clarinets. Some of his creations included multiple bells and valves, such as the 13-belled trumpet and six-valved trombone. Sax worked on new versions of the bass clarinet and patented the saxophone in 1846, which he intended to be used by military bands and orchestras. e saxophone soon became a regular part of military and brass bands in Europe, and eventually gained popularity in modern day wind and jazz ensembles. e town of Dinant has fully embraced its status as Sax's birthplace, complete with a modest- sized museum dedicated to him and numerous saxophone statues throughout the town. You can traverse the river Meuse via the Charles de Gaulle Bridge (dedicated to the longtime president of France, as he was injured there in battle defending the town during World War I) and cross into the city center, admiring the dozens of large saxophone sculptures along its walkways. Each saxophone in this "Art of Sax" exhibit is dedicated to a different country and is decorated accordingly. A few examples on display at the time of my visit included: Belgium's "Compromis" with the colors of the Belgian flag, the Walloon rooster, and the Flemish lion; Austria's "Kristallwelten" with a whimsical representation of the Swarovski Crystal Worlds; Lithuania's "Dunk" showcasing their national sport, basketball; and the USA's "Sax of Liberty" with various references to New Orleans and jazz on one side and World War II's "Battle of the Bulge" on the other. As you turn le from the bridge and walk past the eye catching Notre Dame de Dinant (originally built in 1566), with its iconic black steeple and beautiful stained glass windows, you encounter brass footprints embedded in the sidewalk, some with engraved names of famous composers or saxophonists. We found ones for Charlie Parker, Hector Berlioz, John Coltrane, Bill Clinton, and Georges Bizet. ere are also a collection of lamppost styled displays along the sidewalk that feature the various key mechanisms of the saxophone and individual descriptions of the various sizes, from soprano to contrabass. ese displays lead you down the Rue Adolphe Sax towards a bench with a reclining rendition of the inventor. He sits just in front of his museum, the Maison Adolphe Sax; I enjoyed the obligatory photo op and then went inside. It's a simple, one floor display running the length of the building, with a timeline on the floor and many visual examples of his instruments. Descriptions are written in French, Dutch, and English, and their are multiple interactive recordings and videos to experience. Free to the public, and open all day, it was a nice stop before we visited the rest of the town, including the military Citadel on the cliop, and then enjoyed a jazz band concert in the church. Learn more from the International Adolphe Sax Association at: https://sax.dinant.be/EN

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