HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: Explorations in 3D Printing: Copying a Serpent
An earlier version of this article appeared in the February 2016 edition of the Galpin Society Newsletter and the Spring 2016 issue of The Serpent Newsletter. The finished…
Tag: Organology
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: The Dawn of Exploration for the English Bass Horn? by Craig Kridel
New interest is emerging for instruments that have been a mere afterthought to the church serpent and ophicleide-namely, bass horns. The editors of second edition…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENT COLUMN: Part 1: “A true contrabass wind instrument”
Inventions: Need or Greed? Though not generally accepted as being so important as “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his…
NUTS AND BOLTS: The German CC Tuba
Photos by Jia Lim CC tubas are not a common sight in Germany today but this is by no means a reflection of CC tubas…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENT COLUMN: Inventions: Need or Greed? Part 2: “The right method of chanting and singing”
Following eleven years spent contesting legal cases, Adolphe Sax, bankrupted three times, died aged eighty in 1894. One of the Parisian instrument makers who had…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: C.G. Conn Tuba Designs from 1880-1940: An Investigation of Early Tuba Product Lines and Construction Techniques
The 2016 Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research In 2010, ITEA established the Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research, a biennial program seeking…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: Forty Years On (Clifford Bevan)
Forty years on, growing older and older, Shorter in wind, as in memory long. Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder, What will it…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: French Serpent Notation
Part 1: Pourquoi?1 SIDEBAR Editor’s Note: As an editor of the Historical Instruments section since 1992, I have sought to include pieces of interest for…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: It Might Be C to You, But It’s My . . . Part 2-Â Some peculiarities of pitch and abnormalities of notation
French practice assumed that the serpent was pitched in Bb and, consequently, composers and arrangers placed the notes on the staff a tone higher than…
HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS: The Ophimonocleide: Folly or Genius?
This essay continues an ongoing review of the mysterious and perplexing world of early 19th century bass horns (also known as upright serpents). Thus far,…
