The nineteenth century

In 1983, it was estimated that the composers of more than 2000 operas, ballets and symphonic works had by then included parts for one or more saxophones. Only a very small number of these works were written between 1850 and 1900. I am sure that Adolphe Sax the designer, manufacturer, player and publisher was disappointed that his family of instruments had not found a much more secure place in the affections of classical composers by the turn of the century.

The eulogies heaped upon Sax and his inventions by Hector Berlioz, even before the patent was secured in 1846, should have helped to popularise them. It is all the more strange that Berlioz only scored one piece including saxophone, an arrangement for six instruments, all designed or perfected by Sax, of one of his own vocal works, Chant sacré (arr. 1844). Few composers used saxophones in the orchestra in the nineteenth century. Their works are well known and frequently quoted; Ambroise Thomas in his operas Hamlet (1868) (alto and baritone) and Françoise de Rimini (1882), Bizet in L'Arlésienne (1872), Delibes in the ballet Sylvia (1876), and Massenet in Hérodiade (1877) and Werther (1892) all wrote effective and beautiful solos. These are mostly in the form of brief set pieces, although the saxophone plays throughout the whole opera Werther. Hérodiade requires an alto and a tenor. César Franck scored for a complete quartet (SATB) in his rarely performed opera Hulda (1882–5).