serpent

The Serpent

An early musical instrument from the brass family

The serpent is an odd instrument. It is part of the brass family because it is played by buzzing the lips. The body of this instrument, however, is wood. The body of the serpent has fingering holes, similar to many woodwinds. The shape of the instrument allows the player to reach finger holes around 1/3 and 2/3 the 8 foot length. The serpent was introduced around 1590. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to find links to other serpent sites for more information.

How I built my own serpent

When it comes to making things out of wood, I would be best described as a blacksmith. I'm willing to do things by hand, on cheap materials, and usually brute force my way through generally ridiculous projects. That's how I came up with the brilliant idea of carving a serpent out of plywood. (pause for laughter to die down...) Most wooden serpents were made in two halves and then glued together. I didn't have any wood of that size sitting around, and didn't want to pay for it, so I made mine in many more layers. The serpent is a conical instrument, with a 1/40 slope. To make the bell about 4 inches and the top about 2 inches, I used more and more layers rough cut with a jigsaw. I cut everything square to start with so there would be plenty of room to glue the halves. The first 3 pictures show this stage. Figure 4 shows the inside of one half before any carving.

Figure 1: This shows the 1/2" plywood pieces stacked into a rough serpent shape.

Figure 2: This is the bell with only the 1/2" plywood stacked together.

Figure 3: Here the 1/2" plywood is being glued. I had more metalworking stakes available than clamps.

Figure 4: This is the inside of one half before carving out the corners.

The carving in the inside was done mainly with the wood gouge shown in Figure 5. I had a few others on hand, but I found this one to be the best. In the interest of not breaking the instrument as it got thinner, I clamped it in a few places with at least one close to where I was working. I used scraps of the 1/2" plywood to make it level. Figure 6 shows a close up of the bell and the inside in progress. The final thickness I was aiming for was 1/4"-3/8". I know there are some areas closer to 1/2", though, particularly where the two halves meet. Once they were glued together, that area was trimmed from the outside so that they would be flush.

Figure 5: The left side has been started with the chisel shown. The right side is clamped and ready to begin.

Figure 6: Here is a close-up of the inside showing the corners of the plywood being removed.

Once the inside of both halves was roughed out, I did some rough trimming on the outside with a jigsaw. Next, I glued pieces of 1/4" plywood along the body as required to make smaller steps. Figure 7 shows the glue setting under the weight of assorted metalworking stakes. Now that all of the layers are glued on, the final carving and then sanding of the inside can be done without the fear of going all the way through (Figure 8). The nice thing about carving plywood, perhaps the only thing other than expense, is that you can easily keep track of depth by looking at what layer you're in.

Figure 7: Some rough cutting has taken off the corners on the outside, now 1/4" plywood is being glued down to smooth out the body along its length.

Figure 8: Here is the inside after being carved and now being sanded with coarse sandpaper.

Once the inside is done or mostly done, you can move on to the outside. If all of the flat faces on the outside are removed before now, it would be much more annoying to try to clamp down. The bulk material on the outside was removed with a jigsaw. After that, coarse files and the small block plane shown in Figure 9 were used to round out the body. The bell will be trimmed down once the halves are glued together and a hole for the bocal will be drilled then, too.

Figure 9: The outside of one half is mostly done. Now the shaping of the 1/4" plywood and smoothing on the second half is ready to begin.

Once the shaping was done, I cheated a bit and smoothed out some areas with wood filler. The inside was then painted with multiple coats of black water sealant and wood protector (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Water sealant and wood protector is painted onto the inside.

After the inside was painted, I clamped it all together and drilled the hole for the bocal. I drilled slightly undersized so that I could file it out. Drilling made a lot of sawdust and it clogged the instrument. It would take a lot more work to clean it out if the halves were already glued together. I filed the hole to fit a 3/4" copper pipe coupler. I filed out the little bump that keeps a pipe from passing all the way through so that I can adjust the tuning more. To help line everything up, I glued the pipe fitting in at the same time as I glued the halves together. For the pipe fitting I used JB Weld. The bocal is made from 3/4" and 1/2" copper pipe with a 90 degree elbow and reduction in the middle. I fit a piece of copper inside of the end to allow a small bore trombone mouthpiece to fit snugly. Sections of the bocal are also glued with JB Weld. Once the halves are glued together, the final shaping must be done to clean up the edges and the bell is cut off straight. Sand, paint, drill the finger holes, and you're done. Many of the originals seem to be wrapped in leather, but I decided on just using paint for this version. Leather would have hidden more flaws, but it would have cost much more than I spent on the rest of the project. I wish I had more details on the finger holes, but mine are my best guess after looking at pictures of originals. I figure that I'll just learn to play the one I have, even if it differs from professional models. After drilling the holes, I undercut them with a round file, essentially countersinking the inside. This should allow the hole to function better and more like a large hole that you would expect a bass instrument like this to have. I could have drilled larger holes, but then I couldn't cover them as easily with my fingers.

As I mentioned before, this is not the traditional way that serpents were made. This is only the way my serpent was made. This project took me about a week. Using more traditional methods, I expect it would take a few weeks, more tools, more skill, and a lot more money in materials. There are other serpents shown on the internet that are made from PVC, or square or octagonal wood sections. These would be even faster to build at about the same cost. I feel that I have made a middle ground type of instrument. Even if the quality of sound or material is no better, I have achieved a closer appearance to the originals. Now I just have to learn to play it!

Figure 11: Me, with serpent in hand, pretending I know how to play.

Links

http://www.serpentwebsite.com/

http://www.yeodoug.com/

http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua

http://www.simonchadwick.net/serpent/