TWO hundred years ago this month Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant, Belgium.

The son of a music maker, he went on to invent the instrument which is the only one to bear the name of its inventor: the saxophone.

The society heard a programme of orchestral music using this instrument to mark the anniversary. It is a standard feature of jazz ensembles but it only occasionally features in orchestras. The presenter was Ed Tinline, who provided a history of the inventor and played examples of music. One of the first composers to use it was Jean-Baptiste Singelée who composed Premier Quatour from which we heard the andante played using four instruments actually made by Sax himself. Strangely, it was the Russian composers who were keenest to compose work for the instrument and Ed played excerpts from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and also compositions by Glazunov, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. Georges Bizet was a fan and the intermezzo from L’Arlésienne features the instrument. Despite attempts by composers such as Walton, Britten and Vaughan Williams to include it into their music, it remains an 'affiliate' rather than a permanent feature of orchestras.

Further details at salisburyrms.org.