Padded reed instrument << Back exhibit information online Contraserpent Coeffet Jean-Baptiste Coeffet circa 1830 Inv.-Nr. 1599 Padded reed instrument exhibited in  The Romatic Period     "The barbarian, yes barbarian sound of [the serpent] ought to have been used at the Druids's bloody masses," remarked Hector Berlioz, who included the instrument in the Dies Irae section of his celebrated "Symphonie Phantastique". In the decades before the bass tuba was invented large horns were built in a number of forms to play very low parts. The more bizarre serpent models tended to be of an undulating snake. Due to its unwieldiness and an uneven register the contraserpent was seldom used.