The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ophicleide \Oph"i*cleide\, n. [F. ophicl['e]ide, fr. Gr. 'o`fis
a serpent + ?, gen. ?, a key. So named because it was in
effect the serpent, an old musical instrument, with keys
added.] (Mus.)
A large brass wind instrument, formerly used in the orchestra
and in military bands, having a loud tone, deep pitch, and a
compass of three octaves; -- now generally supplanted by bass
and contrabass tubas. It developed from the older wooden
instrument called the serpent.
--Moore (Encyc. of Music).
Wiktionary
n. (context musici English) A keyed brass baritone bugle, now replaced by the tuba in orchestral music
Wikipedia
The ophicleide [OFF-ih-klide] is a keyed brass instrument similar to the tuba. It is a conical-bore keyed instrument belonging to the bugle family and has a similar shape to the sudrophone.
Ophicleide (pronounced "AHF-ih-klide") and Contra Ophicleide are powerful pipe organ reed pipes used as organ stops. The name comes from the early brass instrument, the ophicleide, forerunner of the euphonium.
The Ophicleide is generally at 16′ pitch, and the Contra Ophicleide at 32′. While they can be 8′ or 16′ reeds in a manual division, they are most commonly found in the pedal division of the organ. Voiced to develop both maximum fundamental tone (as in the Bombarde) and overtone series (as in the Posaune), if the classic voicing technique and use of terminology are followed, the Ophicleide and Contra Ophicleide are among the most powerful and loudest organ stops. Generally the only types of stop more powerful are the various forms of Trompette en chamade. However, the Ophicleides require an extremely large instrument to balance their sound, and so are rarely built today, except into the largest of organs (about one hundred ranks and up).
The Grand Ophicleide in the Boardwalk Hall Organ, Atlantic City, New Jersey, is recognized as the loudest organ stop in the world, voiced on 100″ of wind pressure.
Usage examples of "ophicleide".
The Tourney Field was filled with harmonies played on sackbut and serpent, on ophicleide, gittern, and lute.
In the ophicleide, the bass of the key-bugle, the bore is sufficiently wide to produce the fundamentals of a satisfactory quality.
The bugle with its double development by means of keys into Royal Kent bugle and ophicleide, and by means of valves into saxhorns and tubas, formed the nucleus of brass bands of all countries during the greater part of the 19th century.
There were vendors who shouted the wares they displayed in trays hung from their necks, externs who gabbled in rude tongues, and beggars who showed their sores, feigned to play flageolets and ophicleides, and pinched their children to make them weep.
The army consisted of a magnificent band that also did duty on the stage, where it was quite pleasant to see the worthy fellows marching in Turkish dresses with rouge on and wooden scimitars, or as Roman warriors with ophicleides and trombones--to see them again, I say, at night, after one had listened to them all the morning in the Aurelius Platz, where they performed opposite the cafe where we breakfasted.
His duties take him to other parts of the Citadel--to the soldiers in the barbican, where he learns that the military apprentices have drums and trumpets and ophicleides and boots and sometimes gilded cuirasses.
There were vendors who shouted the wares they displayed in trays hung from their necks, externs who gabbled in rude tongues, and beggars who showed their sores, feigned to play flageolets and ophicleides, and pinched their children to make them weep.
The army consisted of a magnificent band that also did duty on the stage, where it was quite pleasant to see the worthy fellows marching in Turkish dresses with rouge on and wooden scimitars, or as Roman warriors with ophicleides and trombones,—to see them again, I say, at night, after one had listened to them all the morning in the Aurelius Platz, where they performed opposite the Café where we breakfasted.