Keyed bugle, B-flat
Maker
Charles-Joseph Sax
Date1842 ca.
Place MadeBrussels, Belgium, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on the bell: C,, Sax, a Bruxelles.MarkingsCase top lid inlaid inside a keyed-bugle design: L. [or C. ] Honbert / A Menin
Inscribed in ink below the owner’s name within a rectangular field: 1842
DescriptionBrass, two-piece, single loop, tuning slide with rack-and-pinion at receiver, seven keys, lowest key open (no screw), all others closed; original case and possibly original mouthpiece.
Charles-Joseph Sax was listed as a joiner and cabinet maker in the birth certificate for his oldest son Antoine Joseph (known as Adolphe), and it is thus more than likely that he did not only make this keyed bugle but also its magnificent case. Nothing is currently known about the original owner, L. Honbert.
Sax’s keyed bugles show similarities with the French design, but they also feature some special innovations. As is typical for French and Belgium instruments, this keyed bugle is made of brass and of two tube segments with a ferrule-covered joint. The ratchet-and-pinion tuning-slide device was featured in a patent by Jean Hilaire Asté (called Halary or Halari) of Paris. A woodwind as well as a brass instrument maker, Sax transferred the key work of the former to the latter. In ordinary woodwinds, Sax used the traditional block mounts until the 1820s,but at the same time he also employed the more modern post or pillar mounts in more luxurious woodwinds of ebony. He transferred this key-work system to his keyed bugles and introduced cup-shaped key heads so they could be filled with stuffed pads. Sax’s seven-key bugles differed from the French as well as the English and Irish concept. Rather than placing the fourth key lower and the fifth key distinctly higher in the air-column (both for e-flat1), he positioned both these keys at almost the same distance from the bell end, presumably intending them to be used simultaneously. Another important deviation from the English key-system is the lack of a fixing screw for the open key.
DimensionsHeight: 490 mm
Tube length: 1346 mm
Bore diameter (initial): 11.8 mm
Bell diameter: 171 mm
Keyhole positions (from bell end): 132 mm, 225 mm, 285 mm, 324 mm, 334 mm, 459 mm, 531 mm
Keyhole diameter: 39 mm, 33 mm, 26 mm, 23 mm, 23 mm, 23 mm, 19 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2001 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published References"In Memoriam." America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter28, No. 2 (May 2001), p. 8.
Larson, André P. Beethoven & Berlioz, Paris & Vienna: Musical Treasures from the Age of Revolution & Romance 1789-1848. With essay by John Koster. Exhibition catalog, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, September 12-November 2, 2003. Vermillion: National Music Museum 2003. Pages 5 and 55.
Klaus, Sabine Katharina. Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 2: Ways to Expand the Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2013), pp. 208–10, 259.
Kendall, Bryan. In Search of the Saxophone: Its Origins and Functions. (Hutchins, Texas: Kendallhouse Publishing, 2022), p. 25
Credit LinePurchase funds given in memory of Joe R. Utley; André P. Larson Fund, 2001
Object number10002
On View
Not on view
1825-1830 ca.
