I have a cheap plastic Jhorn which tunes better on the whole although this serpent does have interesting deep notes. I would expect: hard to play but still with a somewhat exotic, rich and full sound. That the volume and projection would be less good is no problem musically speaking.
@@southfloridaarcheryguy114 I believe we are talking about the ability to control the pitch of an instrument you are playing, but you raise a fair point. It was at least a hundred years before bach's WTC that these were first used.
Our local church was renovated in the early 1960's, and a serpent (along with another instrument which I can't remember) was found that had been stored and forgotten about. The church was built in 1860-63 to replace a much older church (Circa 1256-1260) whose roof collapsed in a storm, and it was believed that the serpent may have come from _that_ church as the later one had an organ right from the start - something the older church never had.
Back in the 1960s there was a recording of Handel's "Royal Fireworks Music," played in its original instrumentation. King George wanted the work played entirely by woodwinds and brass, without any stringed instruments. As I recall, it was recorded late at night, after all the woodwind players in London's five (I think) symphony orchestras had finished their various concerts, just to get enough oboes and bassoons together in one place. I don't remember the numbers, but it had to be something like three dozen oboes and a couple of dozen bassoons--and a serpent. Wonderful sound with all those woodwinds playing together!
I watched/listened to a guy playing one of these in a quartet a bit ago. He was excellent. However; I think he was using a modernized version specifically engineered to be in perfect pitch. The sound was really amazing compared to an original or a new one staying with the original design, dimensions, style of manufacture. I like the instrument but moreso the re-engineered modern version. I really liked this demonstration of an old style instrument.
Little do you know the rabbit hole you sent me down. Now Im researching history of durch cape colonies and their civilization in south africa. And found pictures in a article of the serpent your most likely talking about in a church that is now a museum in south africa. Since the europeans were using the serpent in churches back then its cool to see they brought it with them to south africa most likely.
I had head of the serpent from the soundtrack for the film Alien, by Jerry Goldsmith, the soundtrack really uses the serpent well to give such a haunting atmosphere.
Someone from the 15-1800s be like: "Yeah let's use something really difficult to play that sounds like someone's butt vibrating at different frequencies and has awful intonation for the lowest voice of our bands which is arguably the most important." A different guy listening: "You are a goddamn genius!"
To be fair, basically as soon as valves were invented for brass instruments, people started trying to make them free-er blowing and larger bore, and tried to make low brass instruments. Berlin pump valves were invented in 1833, and the first bass tuba (with five valves!) was patented just two years later in 1835. Within a couple decades, tubas had largely replaced other low brass instruments, and huge contrabass instruments were being made. Everyone knew the serpent and ophicleide sucked, but they didn't have the tech to do anything better. Long trumpets were manageable, but a valveless 32 or 36 foot tuba would not have worked well.
Hello! This image came from a 19th-century French periodical called Université illustrée, and the print is titled "Chantres au lutrin," by Henri Brispot.
The shofar and related instruments made of animal horns are so old, predating the serpent by so much that we can't really say that the shofar is a direct ancestor to the serpent but humans experimenting with putting holes into animal horns and wood horns to get different notes likely slowy developed into the idea of instruments like the serpent, cornett, zink.... Atleast the idea of it. There is much controvesy over who actually invented the serpent let alone where the idea came from so thats really the best answer.
If you're curious: that's "dies irae", a very old motif that symbols death. Its used in music throughout history all the time and you can hear it in movies pretty often!
