Draft:The Battle of the Bands

In 1845, in an effort to gain a contract to supply instruments to the French military, the bands of Adolphe Sax and Michele Carafa competed against each other in front of an audience of 20,000 people.

On April 22, 1845, at the Champ de Mars, six military bands gather to compete for the best instrumentation for a military band. This includes Carafa's and Sax's bands, alongside four active military bands of the time. This arrangement aimed to provide the France Ministry of War a clear understanding of the existing situation of French military band, and whether it was a wise idea to include new instruments made by the young internment maker Sax, namely his new saxhorns and saxophones.

Table 1: Carafa’s band

1 piccolo	2 cornets	2 natural horns
1 Eb clarinet	3 trumpets	2 valve horns
16 Bb clarinets	4 ophicleides	2 valve trombones
4 oboes
4 bassoons		4 percussions

Table 2: Sax’s proposed instrumentation

1 piccolo	2 Eb soprano saxhorns	2 cornets
1 Eb clarinet	4 Bb saxhorns	6 valve trumpets
6 Bb clarinets	4 Eb tenor saxhorns	2 valve trombones
2 saxophones	2 Bb baritone saxhorns	2 slide trombones
	4 Eb contrabass saxhorns	4 ophicleides
		5 percussions

Background

Concerns about the inferior state of French military band, especially when compared to the demonstrated excellence of Prussian and Austrian bands, were shared by authorities, including King Louis-Philippe. Prussia's superiority in military music, attributed to the German instrument maker Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, prompted French unease. Wieprecht is credited for the invention of the tuba in 1835 and enhancements to the contrabassoon. Serving as the director of Prussian army bands, he introduced valved instruments to the band.

The Commission

The French military band at the time still followed similar instrumentation that was established over the last few decades with the Harmoniemusik with no new additional instruments. It was with these concerns in mind that the French Ministry of War decided to form a commission in 1845 to investigate the situation of French military music.

Aftermath

To make matters worse for Sax, only 2 years after receiving the patent for his instrument family, the Revolution of 1848 broke out. This provided the Association with another chance in taking down Sax, as most of his supporters in the miliary had to escape the new government after King Louis-Philippe’s abdication. As a result, the commission’s original suggestion was revoked, along with Sax’s contract with the military. Orders were cancelled and previously delivered instruments were returned. At the same time, a couple of failed assassination attempts took out one of his assistants, who was mistaken as Sax himself, and a fire burnt down the factory. It seemed inevitable that Sax was going to go bankrupt, until an anonymous business association gave him thirty-thousand francs to pay for his now unemployed workers. Sax understood this to be a gift at the time of receiving the money. Four years later, the mysterious benefactor passed away and the unaccounted thirty-thousand dollars was noticed. Sax was promptly ordered to return this-now-loan in twenty-four hours. Without success, he fled to London, leaving his business in Paris in ruins.

Fortunately, even with the non-sensical lawsuits from the Association that revoked his patents on valved bugles and the saxotrombas in 1849, his patent for the saxophone and saxhorn designs were never revoked. In April 1854, after the short-lived Second French Republic was replaced by the Second French Empire in 1852, Sax gained support from Emperor Napoleon III, and was appointed Musical Instrument Maker to the Household Troops of the Emperor himself. In the same year, the high court concluded a final ruling on all the lawsuits filed against his patent and there were found to be in complete favour of Sax.22 The emperor extended this favour by supporting Sax with his financial difficulties directly. Agreements were reached with Sax's numerous creditors, enabling him to reopen his factory on Rue Saint Georges.

Sax remained active in presenting his instruments at various exhibitions. In 1860, Adolphe Sax faced the imminent expiration of his saxotromba and saxophone patents, coupled with the substantial costs associated with the legal battles around them.24 Faced with these challenges, Sax sought to apply for an extension of his patents, presenting a petition that emphasized that the unique circumstances he had faced in the past decade had hindered him from realizing real profits from the previous patents. Despite negative expectations, this request was approved, marking a surprising turn of events, as similar requests had been granted only once before in French history since 1791. Consequently, both the saxotromba and saxophone patents were extended by five years, ensuring Sax's exclusive rights to the saxophone until May 11, 1866. In 1867, at the Paris Universal Exhibition, he achieved the Grand Prize. The Exhibition featured examples of every musical instrument Sax had either invented or improved, with the centrepiece being an exquisite gold-plated alto saxophone.