Bach and the operas of Gluck after it had become extinct in
England.

The bass cornett was known as the serpent from its curved form, and this
character was in fact necessary in order that the performer's hands might
be nearer together. Mr Galpin writes:--"If not overblown it yields a
peculiarly soft _woody_ tone which no longer has its counterpart in the
orchestra." He quotes from Thomas Hardy's _Under the Greenwood Tree_,
where the village shoemaker remarks, "There's worse things than
serpents." Dr Stone (_Dictionary of Music_, 1883) wrote:--"There were
till a few years ago two serpents in the band of the Sacred Harmonic
Society, played by Mr Standen and Mr Pimlett." The serpent {92} was
driven out of the orchestra by the Ophicleide, which again has been
extinguished by the valved Tubas of Adolphe Sax.

Trumpet and Sackbut.

"The story of the trumpet is the story of panoply and pomp," says Mr
Galpin, and goes on to explain how the trumpeters with drummers formed an
exclusive guild. Trumpets served as war-like instruments, but also for
domestic pomp. Thus twelve trumpets and two kettle-drums sounded while
Queen Elizabeth's dinner was being brought in. That monarch had
certainly no excuse for being late for her meals.

The trumpet was originally a long straight cylindrical tube, but as early
as 1300 the tube was bent into a loop, thus combining length with
handiness. This form of the instrument was known as a clarion, a word
which has degenerated in our day into a picturesque word for a trumpet.
It was for the clarion that Bach and Handel wrote trumpet parts which, I
gather, are almost unplayable on the modern instrument. The clarion
seems to have been soon beaten in the struggle for life by the clarinet,
"which, as its name implies, was considered an effective substitute for
the high clarion notes."

The sackbut, _i.e._ trombone, is an important offshoot from the trumpet.
The essential feature of this splendid instrument is that the length of
the tube can be altered at will. Thus the performer is not--like the
trumpeter--confined to one series of harmonics, but can take advantage of
a whole series of these accessory notes.

The Organ.

This is one of the most ancient of instruments. Thus in the second
century before our era Ctesibius of Alexandria had a simple type of
organ, in which the wind from the bellows was admitted at will into
whistle-like tube by keys which the performer depress