Leather and electronics have long gone together, but that doesn’t explain the Serpentine Bassoon.
The Serpentine Bassoon is a unique Australian double-reed instrument constructed from a 2.6 meter leather tube [the equivalent length of a bassoon]. This conical bore instrument was designed and built by Garry Greenwood specifically for and in collaboration with Joanne Cannon.
Note the snake-like mouth which appears to be swallowing the horn.
The bassoon is featured on the site of the Bent Leather Band.
According to the site:
Leather is a flexible material, allowing itself to be looped and curved to achieve a playable shape. Unlike the instrument’s early music equivalent; the serpent [an instrument constructed from wood and then covered with leather], the serpentine bassoon is constructed from two sheets of polished leather; providing a good acoustically reflective surface inside and out. The leather tube is then wet-formed into the specific shape and heat dried. Leather is less resonant in comparison to other acoustic materials. This facilitates amplification without the usual worries of screeching feedback tones.
The Serpentine Bassoon is played with a normal bassoon crook and double reed. Joanne, however has carefully modified the instrument by including microphones [pickups], a touch sensitive thumb-plate, pressure and movement sensors, which the musician can use to control synthesisers, samplers and effects machines. Joanne uses the instrument to produce an incredible wide range of sounds;including wild animal cries, soft-detailed plucking sounds, bassoon, horn and oboe timbres, cycling rampaging flangers, distortion tones, melodic shifting delays and echoes and all manner of bizarre oscillations, sirens, mutterings and warbling.
The instrument, created by expert crafter Garry Greenwood, is one of several unique creations used by the group.
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