The serpent has been already mentioned as the bass of the obsolete zinken or wooden cornets, straight or curved, with cupped mouthpiece. It gained its serpentine form from the facility given thereby to the player to cover the six holes with his fingers. In course of time keys were added to it, and when changed into a bassoon shape its name changed to the Russian bass horn or basson Russe. A Parisian instrument maker, Halary, in 1817, made this a complete instrument, after the manner of the keyed bugle of Halliday, and producing it in brass called it the ophicleide, from two Greek words meaning serpent and keys - keyed serpent - although it was more like a keyed bass bugle. The wooden serpent has gone out of use in military bands within recollection, the ophicleide from orchestras only recently. It has been superseded by the development of the valved tubas. The euphonium and bombardon, the basses of the important family of saxhorns, now completely cover the ground of bass wind instrument music.

The keyed bugle, invented by Joseph Halliday, bandmaster of the Cavan militia, in 1810, may be regarded as the prototype of all these instruments, excepting that the keys have been entirely replaced by the valve system, an almost contemporary invention by Stölzel and Blumel, in Prussia, in 1815. The valve instruments began to prevail as early as 1850. The sound tube of all bugles, saxhorns, and tubas is conical, with a much wider curve than the horn. The quality of tone produced is a general kind of tone, not possessing the individuality of any of the older instruments. All these valve instruments may be comprehended under the French name of saxhorn. There is a division between them of the higher instruments or bugles, which do not sound the fundamental note, and of the lower, or tubas, which sound it readily. Properly military band instruments, the second or bass division, has been taken over to the orchestra; and Wagner has made great use of it in his great scores. The soprano cornets, bugles, or flugelhorns and saxhorns are in E flat; the corresponding alto instruments in B flat, which is also the pitch of the ordinary cornet.

The tenor, baryton, and bass instruments follow in similar relation; the bass horns are, as I have said, called tubas; and that with four valves, the euphonium. The bombardon, or E flat tuba, has much richer lower notes.

For military purposes, this and the contrabass - the helicon - are circular. Finally, the contrabass tubas in B flat, and in C, for Wagner, have immense depth and potentiality of tone; all these instruments are capable of pianissimo.

There are many varieties now of these brass instruments, nearer particulars of which may be found in Gevaert, and other eminent musicians' works on instrumentation. One fact I will not pass by, which is that, from the use of brass instruments (which rise in pitch so rapidly under increase of temperature, as Mr. Blaikley has shown, almost to the coefficient of the sharpening under heat in organ pipes) has come about that rise in pitch which, from 1816 to 1846 - until repressed by the authority of the late Sir Michael Costa, and, more recently, by the action of the Royal Military College at Kneller Hall - is an extraordinary feature in musical history. All previous variations in pitch - and they have comprised as much as a fourth in the extremes - having been due either to transposition, owing to the requirements of the human voice, or to national or provincial measurements. The manufacture of brass instruments is a distinct craft, although some of the processes are similar to those used by silversmiths, coppersmiths, and braziers.

I have only time to add a few words about the percussion instruments which the military band permits to connect with the wind. Drums are, with the exception of kettle drums, indeterminate instruments, hardly, in themselves, to be regarded as musical, and yet important factors of musical and especially rhythmic effect. The kettle drum is a caldron, usually of brass or copper, covered with a vellum head bound at the edge round an iron ring, which fits the circle formed by the upper part of the metal body. Screws working on this ring tune the vellum head, or vibrating membrane as we may call it, by tightening or slackening it, so as to obtain any note of the scale within its compass. The tonic and dominant are generally required, but other notes are, in some compositions, used; even octaves have been employed. The use Beethoven made of kettle drums may be regarded among the particular manifestations of his genius. Two kettle drums may be considered among the regular constituents of the orchestra, but this number has been extended; in one remarkable instance, that of Berlioz in his Requiem, to eight pairs.

According to Mr. Victor de Pontigny, whose article I am much indebted to (in Sir George Grove's dictionary) upon the drum, the relative diameters, theoretically, for a pair of kettle drums are in the proportion of 30 to 26, bass and tenor; practically the diameter of the drums at the French opera is 29 and 25¼ inches, and of the Crystal Palace band, 28 and 24¼ inches. In cavalry regiments the drums are slung so as to hang on each side of the drummers horse's neck. The best drum sticks are of whalebone, each terminating in a small wooden button covered with sponge. For the bass drum and side drum I must be content to refer to Mr. Victor de Pontigny's article, and also for the tambourine, but the Provencal tambourines I have met with have long, narrow sound bodies, and are strung with a few very coarse strings which the player sounds with a hammer. This instrument is the rhythmic bass and support to the simple galoubet, a cylindrical pipe with two holes in front and one behind, sounded by the same performer. The English pipe and tabor is a similar combination, also with one player, of such a pipe and a small drum-head tambourine.

Lastly, to conclude percussion instruments, cymbals are round metal plates, consisting of an alloy of copper and tin - say 80 parts to 20 - with sunk hollow centers, from which the Greek name. They are not exactly clashed together to elicit their sound, but rubbed across each other in a sliding fashion. Like the triangle, a steel rod, bent into the form indicated by the name, but open at one corner so as to make it an elastic rod, free at both ends; the object is to add to the orchestral matter luminous crashes, as it were, and dazzling points of light, when extreme brilliancy is required.

In conclusion, I must be allowed to express my obligations to Dr. W.H. Stone and Mr. Victor Mahillon, to Mr. Ebenezer Prout, Mr. Richard Shepherd Rockstro, Mr. Lavoix fils, and Dr. H. Riemann, whose writings concerning wind instruments have materially helped me; to Messrs. Boosey & Co., and to Messrs. Rudall, Carte & Co., for the loan of the instruments used in the illustrations; and also to Mr. D.J. Blaikley and Mr. Henry Carte, for valuable personal aid on the present occasion. Their kindness in reading through my manuscript - Mr. Blaikley throughout - and in offering friendly and generous criticisms; also their presence and assistance by trial of the various instruments, I cannot adequately thank them for, or sufficiently extol.

(In the course of this lecture, Mr. Henry Carte played upon a concert flute, also a B flat and a G flute, an eight-keyed flute, and a recorder. Mr. D.J. Blaikley continued the illustrations upon the oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn, slide trumpet, valve tenor horn, cornet à piston, B flat tenor slide trombone, B flat euphonium, B flat contrabass tuba, and B flat contrabass double slide trombone.)