Marcel Mule

Marcel Mule was born on June 24, 1901 in Aube, Normandy.

At the early age of seven he started to study the saxophone with his father and soon he played in his fathers band. With nine Marcel began to play the violin and with twelve he even added the piano.

In 1921 Mule joined the military band and there he worked more seriously on the saxophone than ever before. Than he also developed his musical taste by attending many concerts. Two years later he became the solo saxophonist of the "Guarde Republicaine".

The first saxophone quartet ever, "Le quartour de la musique de la Guarde Republicaine", was formed in 1928 with Mule on soprano. Because there existed no literature for that instrumentation they played transcriptions first, but soon composers became interested and started to write for them.

In 1942 Mule became the second professor of saxophone at the Paris Conservatoire, not until 71 years after Adolphe Sax' class was suspended. When Mule retired in 1968 he was succeeded by his pupil Daniel Deffayet. Other important students of Mule are Jean-M. Londeix, Eugene Rousseau, Iwan Roth and Frederick L. Hemke.

Marcel Mule is perhaps the most important pioneer for the development of the classical saxophone. With his solo performances and also with the quartet performances he inspired many composers to write for the saxohone. Countless pieces were written for him. Besides that he was a great teacher. We as saxophone players owe Marcel Mule a lot.