Serpent

The serpent is a low-pitched early wind instrument in the brass family developed in the Renaissance era. It has a trombone-like mouthpiece, with tone holes and fingering like a woodwind instrument. It is named for its long, conical bore bent into a snakelike shape, and unlike most brass instruments is made from wood with an outer covering of leather. A distant ancestor of the tuba, the serpent is related to the cornett and was used for bass parts from the 17th to the early 19th centuries.

In the early 19th century, several upright variants were developed and used, until they were superseded first by the ophicleide and ultimately by the valved tuba. After almost entirely disappearing from orchestras, the serpent experienced a renewed interest in historically informed performance practice in the mid-20th century. Several contemporary works have been commissioned and composed, and serpents are again made by a small number of contemporary manufacturers. The sound of a serpent is somewhere between a bassoon and a euphonium, and it is typically played in a seated position, with the instrument resting upright between the player’s knees.

Construction

Although closely related to the cornett, the serpent has thinner walls, a more conical bore, and no thumb-hole. The original serpent was typically built from hardwood, usually walnut or other tonewoods like maple, cherry, or pear, or sometimes softer woods like poplar (a very small number were made entirely from copper or brass). The whole instrument is assembled from several curved tubular wooden segments, each made by gluing two hollowed halves together. These segments are then glued and bound with an outer covering of leather.

The instrument uses a mouthpiece about the same size as a tenor trombone mouthpiece, originally made from ivory, horn or wood, which fits into the bocal or crook, a small length of brass tubing that emerges from the top wooden segment.

The serpent has six tone holes, in two groups of three, fingered by each hand. It is difficult to play the instrument with correct intonation, due in large part to the positions of the tone holes. They were arranged largely to be accessible to the player’s fingers, rather than in acoustically correct positions, which would have placed some of them out of reach. While early serpents were keyless, later instruments added keys for additional holes out of reach of the fingers to improve intonation, and extend range.

Modern replicas are made by several specialist instrument makers, employing acoustic analysis and modern fabrication materials and techniques to further improve the serpent’s intonation. Some of these techniques include use of modern composite materials and polymers, 3D printing, and changing the placement of tone holes. Swiss serpent maker Stephan Berger in collaboration with French jazz musician Michel Godard has developed an improved serpent based on studying well-preserved museum instruments, and also makes a lightweight model from carbon fiber. English serpent player and musicologist Clifford Bevan remarks that Berger’s instruments are much improved, finally allowing players to approach the serpent “in partnership rather than in combat”.

Sizes

The majority of surviving specimens in museums and private collections were built in 8′ C, thus having a total tubing length of about 8 feet (2.4 m). A few slightly smaller specimens were built in D, and military serpents could sometimes vary in pitch between D♭ and B♭.

Soprano serpent

A soprano serpent, or worm, first appeared in the 1980s; there is no repertoire or other evidence of their historical existence. Built an octave higher than a serpent in 4′ C, it was first made as a novelty instrument by English early music specialist and instrument maker Christopher Monk.

Contrabass serpent

History

There is little direct material or documentary evidence for the exact origin of the serpent. French historian Jean Lebeuf claimed in his 1743 work Mémoires Concernant l’Histoire Ecclésiastique et Civile d’Auxerre that the serpent was invented in 1590 by Edmé Guillaume, a clergyman in Auxerre, France. Although this account is often accepted, some scholars suppose instead that the serpent evolved from the large, S-shaped bass cornetts that were in use in Italy in the 16th century. It was certainly used in France since the early 17th century to strengthen the cantus firmus and bass voices of choirs in plainchant. This original traditional serpent was known as the serpent ordinaire or serpent d’église (lit. ’ordinary serpent’ or ‘church serpent’). Around the middle of the 18th century, the serpent began to appear in chamber ensembles, and later in orchestras. Mozart used two serpents in the orchestra for his 1771 opera Ascanio in Alba.

Military serpents

Upright serpents and bass horns

Several vertical configurations of the serpent, generally known as upright serpents (French: serpent droit) or bass horns, were developed in the early 19th century. Retaining the same six tone holes and fingering of the original serpent, these instruments resemble the bassoon, with jointed straight tubes that fit into a short U-shaped butt joint, and an upward-pointing bell.

Basson russe

Among the first of the upright serpents to appear was the basson russe, lit. ’Russian bassoon’, although it was neither Russian nor a bassoon. The name is possibly a corruption of basson prusse since they were taken up by the Prussian army bands of the time. These instruments were built mostly in Lyon and often had the buccin-style decorative zoomorphic bells popular in France at the time, shaped and painted like a dragon or serpent head. Appearing around the same time in military bands was the serpent à pavillon (lit. ’bell serpent’) which had a normal brass instrument bell, similar in flare to the later ophicleide.

English bass horn

The English bass horn, developed by French musician and inventor Louis Alexandre Frichot in London in 1799, had an all-metal V-shaped construction, described by German composer Felix Mendelssohn as resembling a watering can. He admired its sound however, and wrote for the instrument in several of his works, including his fifth symphony and the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The bass horn was popular in civic and military bands in Britain and Ireland, and also spread back into orchestras in Europe, where it influenced the inventors of both the ophicleide and later the Baß-Tuba.

Early cimbasso

The serpent appears as serpentone in early 19th century Italian operatic scores by composers such as Spontini, Rossini, and Bellini. In Italy it was replaced by the cimbasso, a loose term that referred to several instruments; initially an upright serpent similar to the basson russe, then the ophicleide, early forms of valved tuba (pelittone, bombardone), and finally by the time of Verdi’s opera Otello (1887), a valve contrabass trombone.

Other upright serpents

Contemporary revival

The era of upright serpents was brief, spanning the first half of the 19th century from their invention to their replacement by the ophicleide and subsequent valved brass instruments. German opera composer Richard Wagner used a serpent as a third bassoon in his 1840 opera Rienzi, but by the 1869 première of his Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle he was writing his lowest brass parts for tuba and contrabass trombone. Consequently, the serpent had all but disappeared from ensembles by 1900.

The serpent has enjoyed a modern revival of interest and manufacture since the mid-20th century. Christopher Monk began building his own replica cornetts and serpents and playing them in historically informed performances. In 1968 he and a colleague devised a method of constructing them inexpensively from a composite wood-resin material, which helped to raise interest in these instruments and increase their availability. In 1976 he established the London Serpent Trio with English players Andrew van der Beek and Alan Lumsden, performing new works and historical arrangements, both serious and whimsical, throughout Europe and North America. At the same time in France, historical instrument specialist Bernard Fourtet and jazz musician Michel Godard began promoting use of the serpent and established an academy for young serpent players.

Range and performance

There is no real standard for the serpent’s range, which varies according to the instrument and the player, but it typically covers the three octaves from C2 two octaves below middle C to C5. Good players can also extend the range downwards to A1 or even F1 by fingering the low C note with all holes covered, and “lipping” down with the embouchure.

Repertoire

Serpents were originally used as an instrument to accompany church choral music, particularly in France. For this purpose, very little was specifically written for the serpent per se; the serpent player would simply play the cantus firmus, or bass line. The serpent began to be called for in orchestras by opera composers in the mid-to-late 18th century, and their subsequent adoption in military bands prompted the publication of several method books, fingering charts and etudes, including duets for student and teacher.

After disappearing almost entirely, the serpent began to reappear in the mid-20th century, in film scores and new period instrument chamber ensembles. American film composer Bernard Herrmann used a serpent in the scores of White Witch Doctor (1953) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), as did Jerry Goldsmith in his score for Alien (1979).

In jazz music, French musician and tubist Michel Godard has incorporated the serpent into his work.

Modern works for the instrument include a concerto for serpent and orchestra by English composer Simon Proctor, commissioned in 1987 to mark the first International Serpent Festival in South Carolina, where it was premièred by London Serpent Trio member Alan Lumsden in 1989. Also premièred at the festival was comic composer Peter Schickele’s P.D.Q. Bach piece “O Serpent” written for the London Serpent Trio and an ensemble of vocalists. Douglas Yeo premièred “Temptation” for serpent and string quartet, written by his Boston Symphony Orchestra colleague, trombonist and composer Norman Bolter, at the 1999 International Trombone Festival in Potsdam, New York. Yeo also premièred a serpent concerto in 2008 by American composer Gordon W. Bowie entitled “Old Dances in New Shoes”. Italian composer Luigi Morleo wrote “Diversità: NO LIMIT”, a concerto for serpent and strings, which premièred in Monopoli, Italy in 2012.