Serpent and his children In 1590, French churchman William of Auxerre invented the snake, a wind instrument weird looking around eight feet long. His tube was presented in a form that suggests a snake wriggling who had been beaten with a stick. For nearly two hundred years, it prospered as an important low, but now he is best known for his descendants numerous and varied.
Among these are the ophicleides, a family of six, euphoniums, a family of eight, saxtrombas, a family of eight, the tubas, a family of nine, and saxophones muchmaligned, who grew up in a family of nine .
Too much credit can be given to Guillaume for his invention, because the snake is a little more than one member of the family of low cones or zinken. These instruments made its appearance in Europe in the fourteenth century.
In England they were called cones and were built in three keys. The little treble cornett in F is only about eighteen inches long and had a thin weak voice. Another was the cornet in C, about two feet long. The third was the big G cornetto, about three feet long. In Germany, these instruments were known as zinken and were built in several keys, one of whom is a soprano high D was just over a foot long.
It is not definitely known how many different members, there was in the original family of instruments, but there was no doubt a fair number.
The cones and zinken were the "black sheep" among musical instruments. Not only they were cheaply made, but they were known for their musical qualities of poverty.
Built in wood and covered with leather, their tone was clear, windy and rough. Anyone with a knife, a pot of glue and a thin layer of leather Skiver could make one of these instruments. Two walls of the tube were cut and pasted in with glue. Then the tube is covered with leather to reinforce the thin wood.
After that, the holes were drilled in the wall of the tube and a mouthpiece cupshaped was expelled from a piece of wood. The instrument was then complete. The achievement of these early instruments was something like making cigar box fiddle or whistle slippery elm today.
However, these instruments have become more popular in Europe. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they were heard in military bands and church choirs and was regarded as the wind instruments the most important time.
Their number and variety multiplied. They swept across Europe just as their famous offspring, the saxophones, later swept America in the 19,205. William probably heard them all day, not only outside his church, but also in his own choir.
Apparently, William shared enthusiasm of his contemporaries in these instruments. It was decided that the world would be happier if a bigger and better Zinke or cone were invented and, accordingly, it brought out the snake.
It was originally a conical tube about eight feet long with six holes and played with a mouth shaped wooden cutting. Later, the keys have been added and the leadpipe and spokespersons were metal.
Its height was two octaves below Middle C, or thereabouts, and gave him a deep voice for military bands and church choirs. He found his place in musical circles as a singer that can lower Glee Club in a college that was without a low voice properly.
The low wind that important at the time, bassoon, reed and its quality of tone does not seem to strike theTancy of the populace. The serpent, therefore, was regarded as an indispensable complement of wind instruments, a great boon to music.
Fifty years before William invented the snake, another clergyman, Afranio Ferrara.
Posted on May 8, 2010.
