The following is based on an original article by Andrew L.Pinctus called "A Musical Serpent Joins the BSO". It originally appeared in The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) on August 14, 1998. The original article and more can be viewed on Douglas's own web site.

"You feel like you're almost playing a living thing," the 43-year-old Yeo says. "Because you have to work so hard at it, you really have to fight, kicking and screaming sometimes, to get the notes to come out the way you want them to. But the fact is, the thing can be played in tune, and it can be played beautifully.

[Click HERE to view a high resolution image of the four serpent photo at right.]

Yeo owns four serpents - a two foot soprano "worm," a four foot tenor instrument (the "serpet"), and two eight-foot church serpents, the standard item. One of those church serpents is an 1801 original, the other a 1996 replica made for him.

Douglas Yeo has been able to play the serpent in the BSO only once, but that's what got him started on the kick. It happened in 1994, when he learned the BSO was going to perform Berlioz' recently discovered Messe solenelle which calls for a serpent.

"Pretty much on a whim," Yeo set about finding and then buying a replica (which he has since sold) from a dealer in the Boston area.

I didn't even blow a note into it, I just bought it. So, I came back and told Lynn Larsen, our personnel manager, that I was going to play serpent in the Messe solenelle. Lynn replied, 'Like heck you are! You're going to play that for Seiji first!'"

Over the next couple of months, Yeo practiced the part and finally went to see Seiji Ozawa in his dressing room in Symphony Hall.

"He came in, looked at the serpent, and the first thing he said was, 'Can you play it in tune?' As I played it, his eyes got bigger and bigger, and he said, 'Yes, yes, I like that.' That was a pivotal moment for the serpent, not just for me but for the serpent in modern history. It was the first time that a conductor of a major symphony had said yes to having serpent in a modern symphony orchestra."

After the round of performances in Boston, New York and Tokyo, Yeo got serious. He knew of a serpent concerto composed in 1989 by Simon Proctor, and he wanted to play it with the Boston Pops. But for that, he would need a "really exquisite" instrument. When he inquired, the Pops said go ahead. So he ordered his own serpent, in walnut, from the Chrisopher Monk Workshop in London, the leading modern serpent maker. The 1997 Pops performance, under John Williams, was followed by another with the Boston Classical Orchestra.

The instrument survived into such 19th century works as Mendlessohn's Reformation Symphony and Wagner's Reinzi. It fell into disuse, Yeo says, with the invention of modern brass instruments, which got rid of the squiggles and were easier to play.