Soprano ophicleide, B-flat, high pitch
Maker
Adolphe Sax
Date1842-1845 ca.
Place MadeParis, France, Europe
Serial No.192
SignedStamped on bell: ˥ / A S / 192DescriptionUpright bell instrument made entirely of brass. Bocal fixed to instrument with wing screw. Nine brass keys with conical key heads, mounted in individual axis with flat springs, and leather pads. Unusually high tone-holes. Decorative bow guard and bell/body brace. Handrest in the form of a snake. Ornate heads on the screws.
This instrument shows unusually high chimneys or tone-hole rims that bridge the distance between the body and the keys. The keys are very modern for the time. The finger rest in the shape of a serpent alludes to the instrument’s Greek name ophis = serpent.
Ophicleides in high B-flat (4½-foot B-flat), the size of the keyed bugle, are uncommon. Nevertheless, three ophicleides of this size by Adolphe Sax survive, all bearing the stamp of his private collection AIS; they are numbered 188, 190 and 192 (this instrument).
DimensionsHeight: 580 mm
Bell diameter: ca. 160 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Tony Bingham, London, 1982.
Published References"Important Acquisitions Made by Museum in 1982." _Shrine to Music Museum, Inc. Newsletter_ 10, No. 3 (April 1983): 2.
"1982 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum." _Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society_ 12, No. 2 (June 1983): 4.
Banks, Margaret Downie. "Nineteenth-Century Brass Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum." _Brass Bulletin_ 61, No. 1 (1988): 54-55.
Phillips, Harvey, and William Winkle. _The Art of Tuba and Euphonium_. Secaucus, New Jersey: Summy-Birchard, 1992. (Appendix B, p. 92).
Larson, André P. _Beethoven: Musical Treasures from The Age of Revolution and Romance. With essays by John Eliot Gardner, William Meredith, and Gerhard Stradner. Exhibition catalog, Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, California, January 30-March 21, 1999_. Santa Ana: The Bowers Museum, 1999. (Page 17).
Larson, André P. _Beethoven & Berlioz, Paris & Vienna: Musical Treasures from the Age of Revolution & Romance 1789-1848. With essay by John Koster. Exhibition catalog, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, September 12-November 2, 2003_. Vermillion: National Music Museum 2003. (Frontispiece, pp. 13 and 59).
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1982
Object number03127
On View
Not on view
1850-1860 ca.
