Serpentone

As Printed on a Score

Italian for the serpent (French and English Serpent), found in scores of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, usually on the bass line beside the bassoons or ophicleide. It is written in bass clef at sounding pitch; today the part is normally played on tuba or contrabassoon unless a period instrument is available.

Also spelled: Serpent, Serpente

How Composers Use It

A wooden, leather-covered bass with finger holes and a cup mouthpiece, devised in France to support plainchant and later used in military bands and opera orchestras — Mendelssohn, Wagner’s Rienzi, Berlioz. Its tone is soft, woody and somewhat uneven. In a historical score, read it as the brass-wind bass of its day; in new writing it is a deliberate antique color that needs a specialist player.