Page:Roze, Nicolas. Méthode de Serpent (1830).djvu/18

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METHOD

FOR THE STUDY OF THE SERPENT

ORIGIN AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE SERPENT.

The serpent has the same nature as the cornett. Its name comes from its shape, which for the greatest convenience is folded on itself given that the tube of the instrument, at six feet long, would have been too cumbersome to wield.

Edme Guillaume, canon of Auxerre Cathedral and treasurer of the bishop, the famous Jacques Amyot,^[1] imagined this instrument in 1590: he first employed it in concerts performed at Amyot; in the simple music of this time, this instrument supported the tone in the unisons; it was then perfected as a bass instrument in the music of the great churches. Since then it has been employed with some advantages in military music.

Until now its primitive form had seemed the most convenient; but an instrument maker of Paris, Monsieur Piffault, has tried successfully to change it, see Figure 2^e

↑ This prelate loved music, and in his episcopal palace he did not disdain to sing his part with musicians... his love for singing strengthened his friendships with those among the canons who willingly went to the Eagle? to sing there, and he similarly accepted? all the tourists, singers, clerks and other shopkeepers who had a good voice and knew their profession, provided they were good mannered, he even liked to play instruments, and often before dinner he played a harpsichord, to sit at the table with a brighter mind after his serious studies.
The esteem he showed for the musicians emboldened them to take over the ancient antiphonal Cathedral system of Psalmodia, whose modulation was used at least since Charlemagne, and remove everything that was wrong with their new principles of understanding, making dissonant what was previously soft, thus introducing a barbarity and an amazing shortage? able to inspire contempt for Plainsong. What consoled zealous people for Gregorian singing and other ancient songs, however, is that at the very time of these changes, a canon of our Bishop and his treasurer invented an instrument capable of giving a new merit to Gregorian chant. This canon was named Edme Guillaume etc. (Life of Amyot by Abbé Leboeuf.)

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[1] This prelate loved music, and in his episcopal palace he did not disdain to sing his part with musicians... his love for singing strengthened his friendships with those among the canons who willingly went to the Eagle? to sing there, and he similarly accepted? all the tourists, singers, clerks and other shopkeepers who had a good voice and knew their profession, provided they were good mannered, he even liked to play instruments, and often before dinner he played a harpsichord, to sit at the table with a brighter mind after his serious studies.
The esteem he showed for the musicians emboldened them to take over the ancient antiphonal Cathedral system of Psalmodia, whose modulation was used at least since Charlemagne, and remove everything that was wrong with their new principles of understanding, making dissonant what was previously soft, thus introducing a barbarity and an amazing shortage? able to inspire contempt for Plainsong. What consoled zealous people for Gregorian singing and other ancient songs, however, is that at the very time of these changes, a canon of our Bishop and his treasurer invented an instrument capable of giving a new merit to Gregorian chant. This canon was named Edme Guillaume etc. (Life of Amyot by Abbé Leboeuf.)

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