Serpent
The serpent, a bass brass instrument, has a long association with church music. It accompanied plainsong in France from the late sixteenth century onward and was popular in English church bands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sometimes used in orchestras, it was replaced by the ophicleide and the newly developed tuba in the mid- nineteenth century.
Artwork Details
- Title: Serpent
- Maker: Unknown , France
- Date: ca. 1810
- Geography: France
- Culture: French
- Medium: Wood, leather cover
- Dimensions: 39 × 17 × 8 1/4 in. (99.1 × 43.2 × 21 cm)
- Classification: Aerophone-Lip Vibrated-horn
- Credit Line: Purchase, Robert Alonzo Lehman Bequest, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.372
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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