Range of the serpent

[Z-Tuba Dude]

I know, I know...about 30 ft, if you have a good arm!

I know there was a discussion earlier about the use of the serpent in Mendelssohn's music.

I was at a rehearsal of the Reformation Symphony this evening, and I had a conversation with the conductor. The part as you may know, is marked for contrabassoon and serpent, but there's only one line of music.

The conductor, who is admittedly not a wind player, was interested in having me play the written part down an octave, to be in unison with the contrabassoon. My feeling is that the serpent part was meant to be played at pitch while the contrabassoon of course would sound down an octave. Sort of like the cello/bass parts in a lot of classical music.

The conductor seemed to feel that the serpent part should be down the octave as well. I am sure that the serpent cannot play a D, two octaves below the bass clef!

It occurs to me, though, that I really don't know much about the range of the various-sized serpents.

Does anybody on the list really know the ranges?

[bbocaner]

C below the bass clef staff to the G above the bass clef staff. Higher than the G is very difficult as the instrument isn't really acoustically perfect. It's easy to play higher notes, it's almost impossible to play them in tune chromatically.

Serpent reads at pitch. You are correct that it should be in octaves with the contrabassoon.

There is a contrabass serpent, but it was rare and that's not what was intended.