Interesting Serpent/Ophicleide collection (in French)

[David Richoux]

Just got this link from the Contrabass list, thought it might be of interest to some:
http://framboiserouge.chez-alice.fr/ser ... rpent.html

I don't know if this is a virtual collection, or an actual museum site.

[J.c. Sherman]

The number of errors on this site couldn't be higher if a blind man was guessing... Beautiful collection of photos, but seriously flawed nomenclature!

J.c.S.

[David Richoux]

The number of errors on this site couldn't be higher if a blind man was guessing... Beautiful collection of photos, but seriously flawed nomenclature!

J.c.S.

Even counting translation errors - what specific problems do you see? (I am not being snarky here, maybe I am missing formal education on the topic.)

[J.c. Sherman]

The "Corn bouq contrebasse" is not a contrabass anything... it's a keyed bass serpent.

The "Ophic monstres" and basson monstres" are not a monstres, as monstre meant "contrabass" in the nomenclature in use at the time.

Serp militaires contrebasses - not a contrebasse

The "tubas"... that's obviously way off

That's just some of the first page... and when you click say "Tubas one", which are mostly wood ophicleides an german bass horns... it's just waaaaaayyyyyyy off. My guess is that this consists of art clipped from the internet.

This is my favorite:

http://framboiserouge.chez-alice.fr/ser ... d1840b.jpg" target="_blank

That is the only historic contrabass serpent in existance.

The errors are endless. It's like the "Tuba Views" book: great deal of beautiful images, with bewildering labels (no offense meant...).

J.c.S.

[David Richoux]

OK - however, not knowing who put this site together - dedicated, but misguided amateur musicologist, or lazy pro - I can see why they would label some things the way they did.

The Serpent Militaires Contrabasses look larger than the Serpent militaires basses. The Serpents monstres, Corn bouq monstres and other instruments with Snake or Dragon heads are somewhat logically subdivided into "Monster" groups - perhaps the site maker did not have access to the information mentioned here or in Bevan's "The Tuba Family" (that only references "Monster" a few times without much explanation about it defining certain instrument sizes.)