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An illustration of a Serpent.
An illustration of a Serpent.

A serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. A wind instrument is a Musical instrument that contains some type of Resonator (usually a tube in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods Mediatubaogg -->The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched Brass instrument. On Brass instruments the mouthpiece is the part of the instrument which is placed upon the player's Lips The purpose of the mouthpiece is a Resonator, which A brass instrument is a Musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular Resonator. Types of woodwind instruments See also List of woodwind instruments Single-reed instruments use a reed, which is a thin cut It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, hence the name. The serpent is closely related to the cornett, although it is not part of the cornett family, due to the absence of a thumb hole. The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods It is generally made out of wood, with walnut being a particularly popular choice. Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs Walnuts (genus Juglans) are Plants in the family Juglandaceae. The outside is covered with dark brown or black leather. Despite wooden construction and the fact that it has fingerholes rather than valves, it is usually classed as a brass, with the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification placing it alongside trumpets. Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs-Hornbostel) is a system of Musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs At various times and in various different cultures various schemes of Musical instrument classification have been used

The serpent's range varies according to the instrument and the player, but typically covers one from two octaves below middle C to at least half an octave above middle C. In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems C or Do is the first Note of the fixed-Do Solfege. In Western Music, the expression " Middle C " refers to the note

Contents

Characteristics

The serpent usually has six holes, which are ordered in two groups of three. On early models, the fingerholes were keyless, like those of a recorder. The recorder is a woodwind Musical instrument of the family known as Fipple Flutes ' or internal duct flutes &mdash whistle-like However, later models added keys as on a clarinet, although they were for additional holes (out of reach of the fingers), while the original holes remained unkeyed, and are to be covered or uncovered directly by the fingers of the player. The clarinet is a Musical instrument in the Woodwind family The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word

While it does not have the kind of rigidly defined fingering system that other wind instruments enjoy, the serpent requires an extraordinary amount of effort from the player, who must select the desired pitch with his or her lips, usually overriding the tone the instrument prefers to sound with any particular fingering. The serpent player also has a unique right-hand finger position, in that the index finger may be further down the tube towards the bell than the other fingers of that hand. In this respect the fingering of the right hand is reversed to that found in all other keyed wind instruments, where the keys and holes controlled by the index fingers are further up towards the mouthpiece than the other fingers. This is because the serpent was originally held vertically, with both of the player's hands oriented palm-down; in this position the right hand fingerings are not reversed in the manner described above. Later, players began to hold the instrument horizontally, necessitating a reversal of the right hand to palm-up, with the fingerings changing accordingly.

A man playing the serpent: Engraving from Filippo Bonanni's Gabinetto Armonico pieno d'Instromenti (Roma, 1723)
A man playing the serpent: Engraving from Filippo Bonanni's Gabinetto Armonico pieno d'Instromenti (Roma, 1723)

History

The instrument was invented by Canon Edmé Guillaume in 1590 in Auxerre, France, and was first used to strengthen the sound of choirs in plainchant. Filippo Bonanni or Buonanni (1658-1723 was Italian Jesuit scholar born in Rome. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers For the band see " Plainsong (band " For the song on The Cure's 1989 album see " Disintegration " Around the middle of the 18th century, it began to be used in military bands and orchestras, but was replaced in the 19th century by a fully keyed brass instrument, the ophicleide, and later on by valved bass brass instruments such as the euphonium and tuba. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system A military band is a group of personnel that perform musical duties for military functions usually The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The ophicleide ( is a family of conical bore Brass keyed bugles History and playing It is reported to have been invented in 1817 and patented The euphonium is a conical-bore, Baritone -voiced Brass instrument. Mediatubaogg -->The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched Brass instrument. After that the Serpent dropped off in popularity for a period of time.

Bernard Herrmann used a serpent in the score of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959). Bernard Herrmann ( June 29, 1911 &ndash December 24, 1975) was an American composer noted for his work in Motion pictures. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 1959 Adventure film adapted by Charles Brackett from the novel by Jules Verne

In the 1970s instrument-maker Christopher Monk began playing and later making Serpents, and in 1976 he founded the London Serpent Trio. Since then, the instrument has been undergoing a revival of sorts. In 1987 the first (and so far, only) concerto for the instrument was written by Simon Proctor. Simon Proctor is a British Composer, Pianist, and Flautist, famous for his works for unusual instruments The Serpent Concerto was first performed on October 21, 1989 at the First International Serpent Festival (celebrating the 399th anniversary of the serpent) with Serpent soloist Alan Lumsden. Events 1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Since that time, the Serpent Concerto has been performed in public on many occasions, most notably by Douglas Yeo of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra, who played the solo part with the Boston Pops under the direction of John Williams. Douglas Yeo is bass trombonist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he holds the John Moors Cabot Bass Trombone Chair The concerto appears on a commercial CD recording "Le Monde du Serpent" (The World of the Serpent), on the Berlioz Historic Brass label, BHB 101, with the Berlioz Historical Brass, Gloria Dei Cantores choir, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra et al.

Variations

Serpent in the V&A Museum, London.
Serpent in the V&A Museum, London. The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design housing a permanent collection

The serpent underwent an evolutionary process that led to a variety of related instruments. There are two main types of serpent: curved (serpentine, or double-S, shaped) and straight/upright (the tube is mostly straight, but is folded back on itself in the middle, much like a bassoon). Within the curved style, there are two variations; Church (also called French) and Military (also called English). The Church serpent is the original type, invented in France, and is distinguished by gentle, sweeping curves and little (if any) metal reinforcements. The Military serpent was primary made in England, and is characterised by having tighter bends and a slightly more compact overall size as a result, with lots of metal bands and stays between the tubing. Furthermore, there are several different sizes besides the common "church" Serpent, including Contrabass ("anaconda"), Tenor ("serpent") and Soprano ("worm"). Only the original bass size, and possibly the tenor, were made during the serpent's heyday. The soprano is a fanciful modern variant, and the contrabass is based on a single known original made after the serpent was already fading in popularity.

From its beginning as an instrument held vertically between one's knees with both palms facing down, Hermenge (in his serpent method - Paris, 1817) suggested a horizontal playing position that resulted in the right hand palm faced upward. This position was adopted by English military serpents and the instrument was made of a more robust construction (owing to marching or riding on horseback) with thicker walls of the wood and metal stays between the "S" bends of the serpent. The "English bass horn" was a variant on the "cimbasso" (= corno di basso), a form of upright serpent of metal consisting of a tube folded back on itself (rather like the modern bassoon). The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally Mendelssohn scored for the English bass horn in the first edition of his "Midsummer Night's Dream" although the ophicleide was substitituted with his consent after the English bass horn fell rapidly from favor. Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and generally known as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3 1809 &ndash November 4 1847 was a German Composer The ophicleide ( is a family of conical bore Brass keyed bugles History and playing It is reported to have been invented in 1817 and patented Coeffet (Paris, active 1810-1845) invented the "ophimonocleide," an upright serpent with six holes and a single key (ophi = serpent, mono = one, kleis = key/covering). Upright serpents called the "basson Russe " (often referred to as the "Russian bassoon") - neither Russian nor a form of bassoon - often had a zoomorphic head like the buccin. The buccin is a visually distinctive trombone popularized in military bands in France between 1810–1845 which subsequently faded into obscurity The "serpent Forveille'" (pronounced "serpent forvoe" or "forvay" and named after its inventor) featured a small receptacle in the bocal to collect condensation that results from the warm breath of the player. Whereas other upright serpents usually had metal bells and either a metal or wooden body, the Serpent Forveille was half wood on the part from the middle up to the bell, and metal from the middle to the mouthpiece. Gradually keys were added to serpents (the most appear to have been 14, on instruments made by Thomas Key (London, c. 1830) on display at the Museum of Welsh Life in Cardiff, Wales (another specimen is owned but not displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). The extraordinary contrabass serpent (in nominal CC) made by the Wood brothers in Huddersfield, England, c. 1840) has all of its holes covered by keys but, owing to the varying sizes of the holes and "chimneys" extending from each hole which are in turn covered by flat keys, is really more of a wooden contrabass ophicleide in serpentine shape. The ophicleide ( is a family of conical bore Brass keyed bugles History and playing It is reported to have been invented in 1817 and patented

The evolution of the serpent was completed with the invention of the ophicleide (again, ophis = serpent, kleis = key/covering, therefore "keyed serpent",) patented in France by Halary in 1821.

See also

External links

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