These fascinating instruments are connected to fascinating biographies - and the one of Leon Leblanc is a good start to understand in which spirit these instruments were built. Leon Leblanc, born November 24, 1900, in La Couture-Boussey to Georges Leblanc, wind instrument maker—successor to Denis Toussaint Noblet (1850–1919), and Laure Clémence Jeuffroy (1875–1965), a worker "in musical instruments," Léon Leblanc was surrounded by music from a very early age. Leblanc's childhood was spent in the workshops, in contact with workers, machines, wood, and the musicians of the village band that his father, Georges, a bassoonist, led. When he was six years old, he began to learn the soprano saxophone, and then moved on to the clarinet. He was sent to the Collège Saint-Nicolas de Paris to further his studies, and, at 16, he earned his Brevet Élémentaire (a school certificate requiring two years of elective study). 1921 was the pivotal year: after earning his clarinet diploma at the Paris Conservatoire, Leblanc travelled in the United States for three months to display the Noblet-Leblanc clarinets, and soon realized the potential of the North American market. {...} An enterprising and visionary son and a father oriented toward the future: these are the ingredients of success. In the mid-1920s, new three-story workshops were built in the Belleville district at 70 rue des Rigoles in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. It was thanks to Charles Houvenaghel (1878–1966), top-class acoustician, clarinetist, and friend of the Leblancs, that experiments and acoustic tests became widespread. They also opened up the way to modernity and to developing higher-performance instruments. Leblanc and Houvenaghel invented, patented, and manufactured models of clarinets to be able to form an entire orchestra, from the sopranino to the contrabass.
{SOURCE: Léon Leblanc (1900–2000), music as a vocation, Léon Leblanc (1900–2000), music as a vocation - Google Arts & Culture}
I. THE FIRST LEBLANC SAXOPHONE: Continuing the heritage of Adolphe Sax
In 1926, Leon Leblanc also filed the patent for a new Saxophone, called "Le Rationnel", 'the Logical'; Patent US1840456: Saxophone, granted in 1932. Dutch researcher and saxophone builder Marten Postma has shown strong similarities with the final patent by Adolphe Sax from 1881 for an alto saxophone keyed to high G with already similar keywork inventions and is convinced that this heritage of Adolphe Sax was present to Leblanc and Houvenaghel. Sax himself was never able to realize this patent fully and built only one prototype, Ad. Sax alto saxophone 40842. {Leblanc Rationnel and patent 1840456}. Both Adolphe Sax and Charles Houvenaghel searched for ways to build saxophones truthfully to the fundamental principle of Theobald Boehm: no key cup below an open tone hole should be closed to allow the most free and undisturbed sound on each note resulting in an equal chromatic scale of the saxophone. In conventional saxophones following the Adolphe Sax design, Low C#, Eb, G# remain closed and on cross-fingerings for middle C, Bb and F# were common which sounded muffled and created instabilities in intonation.
Leblanc #1
Leblancs first saxophone solved this challenge. It had fully interconnected palm keys up to high-G, which allowed trills and virtuosic playing in the third octave, a small hole in the left- hand key thumb rest like an alternative octave key for the second octave with better intonation on D and Eb, and it also allowed trills with an additional key for low B on the little finger of the right hand. In addition, any key depressed on the right hand lowered the fingered note on the left hand a semi-tone which created a new logic for chromatic playing on the saxophone. Furthermore, it was built completely out of solid nickel silver (Maillecort) which Houvenaghel attributed special acoustical properties to: “It is without doubt the most perfect material, which meets all the requirements of the modern artist, its molecular state is of great inertia and its power of reflection at the nodes of vibration superior to many metals, which favors and facilitates the emission of sound; its dilatation is much less than that of copper brass as well as its conductivity, while its resistance is much higher. {James A. MacGillivray, Recent Advances in Woodwind Fingering Systems, The Galpin Society Journal , May, 1959, Vol. 12 (May, 1959), pp. 68-72}.
In the first years this model got altered and simplified, later examples show less palm keys ad improved mechanical linkages. Paul Cohen, owner of #95, writes on sax on the web: “The sound of my Rationnel is clear, responsive, resonant and very even from top to bottom. But the most amazing part of the playing experience is the mechanism, and all the new possibilities it offers. Truly amazing. I claim no expertise in either understanding or mastering the keywork innovations (apart from the acoustical re-design) but it is a fascinating undertaking.”
II. THE SEMI-RATIONNEL (1935 - 1945)
Houvenaghel and Leblanc developed and simplified the original saxophone design continuously in the following decade. While Leblanc was new on the market for Saxophones, it had a long history of building other woodwind instruments and applied the highest standards to building saxophones now as well. From a former musician who knew Leon Lebalnc I heard that Leblanc did not worry about the success of his saxophones because he trusted, like with his clarinets, they would eventually just win the artists over by their quality. This might sound naive- but when we compare these instruments with their competitors in the late 1920s, the perfection and artistry applied to the mechanic of these insturments could have appeared superior in comparison to other models such as the Selmer Model 28, Selmer Super etc. But the overly complex mechanic was certainly highly costly and difficult to maintain. So a lot of effort was put into refinements and simplifications by maintaining the core sound and equal scale of the instrument.
By 1938, Leblanc sold next to the already modified and improved Rationnel model a version with a less complex key mechanism, the semi-Rationnel that lacked part of the left-hand palm trill keys and also the open low C#. Here is an ad from 1938:
Publicité parue en 4ème de couverture de la revue "Musette" spécial Noël n°12 et 13 juillet-sept 1938 + octobre -dec 1938 Document fourni par Thierry Legros.
At this point (with a strong inflation in France as well), Leblanc´s prices were high for the Rationnel, and the Semi-Rationnel was in comparison to the Rationnel also considerably cheaper in production as it had less complicated mechanics and was made out of silver-plated brass rather than German silver. From this series, a few hundred alto saxophones were built, the serial numbers had a prefix of SR, SR-A or SR-B and the highest known serial number is #282. Here is a photo of#92 which I played and recorded with and #282, now in a private collection in Switzerland. It represents a good contrast to model #92 in terms of elegance and keywork simplifications - but these instruments might also be around 5-10 years apart...
III. THE PARIS SYSTEM 100 (ca. 1950) - From Paris to New York
On his return from traveling in America in 1921, Leblanc was convinced that he should take on the American market, and, in June 1935, following yearly trips to display his instruments, he formed a company under the name G. Leblanc Inc. in New York for the manufacture, purchase, sale, import, and export of all types of musical instruments. Likely due to the sociopolitical and economic tensions of the late 1930s, the company was likely never active. In 1944, Leblanc met Vito Pascucci, repairman for the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band, in France. After Miller's tragic death in December 1944, Leblanc suggested that Pascucci create a distribution company in the US and Pascucci "rose enthusiastically to the occasion." In 1946, G. Leblanc Corporation was born.{Léon Leblanc (1900–2000), music as a vocation}.
While the new company was making a significant impact on the US market for clarinets, Leon Leblanc also promoted the further development of his saxophone which underwent constant improvements for the US market as well. For the New York world fair of 1939, a lacquered version of the semi-Rationnel and a new prototype, which had an even more elegant mechanic but missed the open Low C# and was keyed only to high F were presented to the public.
These early LEBLANC SYSTEM Alto (no tenors built yet) saxophones - had:
- NO additional front High F# but
- a regular front forked pearl F key
- no double arms on the low bell keys,
- no cloth guard to protect the mechanic for the low bell keys and
- a flowery engraving more similar to french saxophones including Paris/France below the G on the bell engraving.
The serial number system started new and without a prefix. Tenors were built later in this series than the altos.
LEBLANC SYSTEM Alto saxophones - Series II - (1955 - 1960)
The first typical Leblanc System saxophone which is not a rare as the earlier models featured:
- a supporting brace under the neck, a design also used by SML and other companies.
- an additional high High F# key below the other three palm keys, earlier models without this extra key
- and the semi-Rationnel forked front f which is a plain metal bar and not as elegant as the formerly already established pearl key.
- usually a two-tone finish (lacquered brass with nickel-plated mechanic), silver plated saxophones where a special order.
- very efficient octave mechanic similar to Leblanc´s Bass clarinets
- Tenor Saxophones are introduced
Below is a photo gallery of serial number #357.
