that Sax’s instrument had undergone few significant changes since the original 186 design, but that he, Gautrot, had improved tuning and sonority through simplifying the mechanism. Gautrot’s modifications were largely related to the interior dimensions of the bore and the placement of toneholes, and he gives detailed calculations of these for Ba soprano and Ea alto and baritone instruments. He proposed minor changes to certain key placements and the manner by which these were attached to the body. Gautrot also advocated redesigned pads, in which a stiffening mechanism was introduced between the pad and the cup in order to keep the pad itself flatter. In exterior appearance and range (b0 to f3) the instrument appears largely unchanged from Sax’s own.
Between 1875 and 187 Pierre Goumas applied for four patents relating to the saxophone, under the name of Goumas et Cie (although Goumas had taken over the operations of the Buffet Crampon company at this stage, and continued to use the latter’s trademark). Goumas’s concern was with the operation of the left-hand keys, especially the notes between b2 and d3, and particularly the perennially problematic cJ3. Observing that the fingering of the left hand had ‘always been very difficult, and that not until after years of study could one become a master’,86 Goumas proposed a system based on the left hand of Boehm’s clarinet fingering. Specifically, he designed a left-hand thumb key to be operated separately from, and in addition to, the two existing octave keys. By means of a carefully constructed linkage d3 appears to have been accessed by using the second octave key only; cJ3 was produced by the index finger of the left hand, simultaneously raising the thumb from the new thumb key. Pressing the thumb key alone produced c3, while adding the index finger produced b2. An additional palm key (similar to today’s d3 key) could be used with the new thumb key to provide a semitone trill from c3 to cJ3. Again following the Boehm system, Goumas introduced a linkage so that ba2 could be produced by adding the right-hand index finger to the b2 fingering, as is common today (as well as having the same effect on ba1). Goumas appears unsatisfied with the outcome, however, and submitted three further amendments to this patent, one in 1878 and two in 187, which continued to address the problematic cJ2. His final attempt at a solution was to incorporate a right hand side key, in the position in which a side c trill key is today more commonly provided, with which the cJ2 could be obtained. Goumas’s patents may have partly inspired Sax’s 1881 patent, which addresses several similar issues.
In 1886 the Association générale des ouvriers en instruments de musique, an organi- sation involving several of the manufacturers who had taken legal action against Sax, proposed a number of modifications.87 These included: a long ba1 fingering which could be played by depressing any of the first, second or third fingers of the right hand plus the first finger of the left hand (thus extending Goumas’s and Sax’s innovation); two half-holes on the keys for the left hand index finger (b1) and the right-hand middle finger (fJ1) – the first was intended to function as an octave vent key for the notes gJ2 to b2, and the second an alternative way of playing d3 and dJ3; a lever added below the right-hand first finger – to provide a trill from f to fJ – and another below the right- hand middle finger – to provide an alternative f natural fingering; the addition of what appears from the patent sketches to be a right-hand trill key from b1 to c2; an additional low cJ1 key, to be played by the right-hand fourth finger; and an additional left-hand fourth finger key, which provided an alternative ea fingering (similar to the e/b1 cross
fingering available on the Boehm clarinet). The Association included a diagram of a soprano saxophone to illustrate these developments.
A subsidiary patent of 1887 repeated much of the information from the first patent, while proposing yet more innovations, now illustrated with both soprano and alto saxophone diagrams.88 Keys were now arranged such that the depressed gJ key remained closed while playing fJ, more easily facilitating fJ/gJ trills. A further linkage between the low cJ1 and c1 keys, which normally stood open, allowed both to be played with the right hand little finger only, with c1 automatically closing the cJ1 key as required. A right-hand gJ key was added to aid trills from gJ to a. The f3 key was linked to the other palm keys, thus requiring only the opening of this one key to render accurately this top note (rather than necessitating the manual opening of all the other palm keys). An alternative left-hand fingering was given for ea1, in addition to the normal right-hand fingering. A separate diagram illustrated the addition of a moveable brass tuning slide fitted onto the neck of the saxophone, to which the mouthpiece was attached, which allowed the instrument to be tuned without a space developing between the exit point of the neck and the chamber of the mouthpiece.
Millereau, who had submitted the first non-Sax patent in 1866, proposed a further development in an 1888 patent, extending the range of each saxophone down to written ba0.8 To produce this note he devised, in conjunction with the renowned Parisian saxophonist Louis Mayeur, a mechanism operated by the thumb of the right hand, normally used only to support the instrument rather than having an active role. While the extension down to ba0 eventually became commonplace, the
28. Soprano saxophone sketch from the 1886