OPHICLEIDE (Eng. and Germ.; Fr. Basse d'Harmonie). A barbarous name, compounded of the Greek words for snake and door-key, which has been given to an improvement on the Serpent, Russian bassoon, or Bass horn.
The invention of this instrument is attributed by Fétis to Frichot, a French music an settled in London about the year 1790. He states moreover that Frichot published in London in the year 1800 a description and method of playing it, under the title of ‘...