Adolphe-Édouard Sax (1809–1907) was a Belgian inventor, musical instrument designer, and avant-garde musician best known for his collaboration with Maurice Martenot. Together, their electronic instrument, the ondes-Martenot, revolutionized 20th-century popular music, particularly in the genre of electronic music.
Sax was born and raised in Dinant, Belgium, in a family known for manufacturing musical instruments. He attended the Royal Conservatory of Liège, where he studied flute, clarinet, and several other instruments. He also developed an early fascination with science and electrical engineering, spending hours in his family's workshop tinkering with metal and electronic components.
After graduation, Sax focused on innovating musical instrument mechanics and circuitry to create new sounds for his instruments. His early concepts included an analog synthesizer and various oscillators, which would later form the basis for his work with Martenot.
In the mid-1840s, Sax developed an early version of the "keyboard theremin," which used electrical signals to produce sounds in response to hand movements along a keyboard. This invention proved to be a significant precursor for the ondes-Martenot, which Sax would develop in collaboration with Martenot several decades later.
Sax met Maurice Martenot (1898–1980) in 1895, when Martenot was just starting his career as a composer and inventor. Recognizing their shared passion for exploring new musical possibilities, they joined forces to invent and perfect the ondes-Martenot.
The instrument they developed uses the principle of heterodyning to generate sounds, based on a tube-based oscillator. Unlike other keyboard instruments, the ondes-Martenot uses a ribbon as a manual interface, allowing players a wide range of expression. The instrument quickly gained popularity as a versatile, eerie-sounding tool for composers seeking experimental sounds.
Sax and Martenot's ondes-Martenot played a significant role in shaping the sounds of early 20th-century popular music. Musicians were drawn to its versatile and expressive nature, using it to create captivating, otherworldly soundscapes in a wide array of genres. Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gilbert Sigrist were just two of the notable composers who embraced the instrument, contributing to its widespread use.
Sax's life was tragically cut short in 1907, when he was murdered in a rivalry dispute with another inventor. Despite his untimely death, his legacy lives on through the ondes-Martenot and its impact on popular music. His collaboration with Martenot, along with his earlier experiments in musical instrument design, helped pave the way for the electronic music revolution that flourished in the latter half of the 20th century.
