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List of European medieval musical instruments

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of medieval musical instruments used in European music during the Medieval period. It covers the period from before 1150 to 1400 A.D. There may be some overlap with Renaissance musical instruments; Renaissance music begins in the 15th century. The list mainly covers Western Europe. It may branch into Eastern Europe but won't focus on that region.

Percussion

[edit]
Names and variations Description Ethnic connections, regions Pictures Pictures
Adufe[1]

Pandeiro[2]

A frame drum brought to Iberia by Muslims and played mainly by women.[3] Used in the charamba in Portugal, a circle dance for couples.[3]

The adufe is a square or rectangular frame drum usually made of pine, over which is mounted a goat's skin. The size of the frame usually ranges from 12 to 22 inches on each side, and 1 to 2 inches thick. The skin is stitched on the sides, with the stitches covered by a coloured ribbon. In the interior small seeds, stones or bells are placed to make pleasing sounds. Illustrated examples are decorated, possibly with henna.[4]

Iberia
Portugal
Spain
Musicians, Crusader Bible, MS M.638, fol. 29r
Circa 1140 A.D., Sicily. A woman in Muslim clothes plays an adufe percussion instrument, in a painting at the Capella Patina.
1240s A.D., France. An adulf (square held over the group's head)
Circa 1320, Barcelona. Woman playing an adufe, from an illustration in the Golden Haggadah.
Bells

handbells

Chimes

Small cast bells in "Mediterranean tradition" were used by Christians during the first four centuries A.D.[5] In the 5th century Irish Christians began making forged bells (cowbells).[5] In 530 A.D., the Benedictine Order began to engineer large cast churchbells and set up foundries to make them, supplying them throughout western Europe.[5] Eastern Europe got bells from Constantinople.[5] Cherson in Crimea also made bells.[5]

Racks of hammer struck bells are called chimes.[6] Chimes from cymbalum (Latin).[6] In Middle Ages (10th-16th centuries) was for indoor instrument made up of 4-12 small bells, hung from a bar and struck with hammers.[6] Beginning 12th century, may have had "large wooden key installed" to make playing easier and to help play bigger bells.[6]

In areas where Christians and Muslims shared space, such as Anatolia and the Iberian Peninsula, bells competed with Muezzins calling the Islamic faithful to prayers.[7] In Anatolia, bells were replaced by beams of wood (struck as bells). In Andalusia/Spain, Christians used bells to drown out the Islamic sounds, and Muslims tried to silence the bells by taking them in war.[7]

Latin, western tradition from church
tintinabulum, bell
tintinabuli, little bell
Bell used in monastery to signal times of day for activities; inscribed in Latin TINNIO PRANSVRIS CENATVRIS BIBITVRIS (“I ring for breakfast, dinner, and drinks”).[8]
1330 A.D., Pamplona Cathedral. Bell wringer in a painting by Juan Oliver
Circa 1438, Italy. Clavichord, chimes and psaltery by Perinetto da Benevento.
Poland, church of St Mary Magdalen in Breslau. Sinner's bell, cast 1386, destroyed in 1945.[9]
Bell table
Musicians playing handbells and psaltery, detail from Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 229 (U.3.2), folio 21V
Bumbulum (legendary)

Bunibulum (legendary)

Some medieval scribes theorized about music from the past, or used musical instruments to illustrate doctrinal points. They copied in manuscript a letter from St. Jerome (342-420 A.D.) to Claudius Postumus Dardanus. In it, Jerome tried to explain pagan and Christian musical instruments that are mentioned in the Bible and their allegorical meanings.[10] The letter was reproduced in Christian manuscripts. Starting about 850, scribes began to illustrate the letter in manuscripts, from descriptions of the musical instruments in the letter.[11] Some are allegorical and wouldn't work, such as a horn with three mouthpieces for each of the Holy Trinity to blow through; however in an allegory the Trinity would be expressed by speaking through the four outlets, symbolizing the Four Evangelists.

- The bumbulum was played by shaking it. It had hanging bells or jingles, suspended from a centerpiece, itself suspended from overhead. It was described as a carpenter's square (signifiying the Holy Cross) with a "four cornered object" hanging from it (signifying Christ on the Cross), with 12 pipes hanging from the object's sides (to jingle and to signify the 12 Apostles).[12]

Circa 850-875 A.D., Benedictine Abbey of Saint Emmeran, Germany. Illustrations of St. Jerome's instruments. Top, the bumbulum; below it the tubae blown through by the Trinity; the two instruments below the tubae are psalteriums; below them are a timpanum and chorus (trumpet that splits into two and rejoins at the exit).
1511 A.D. Germany. Reproduction of line of images in manuscript that go back into the 850s A.D. At left a bumbulum; at right an organum (pipe organ).
Clappers

cliquettes

Clappers from the Carolingian Empire appear to have been disks or possibly chimes attached to sticks. Other versions were blocks of wood held in the palms. The palm-held blocks could make clicking and rattle noises like castanets. Other similar instruments worldwide include the Thai/Cambodian krap sepha, Indian/Nepali khartal, Uzbek/Tajik qairaq, or North African krakebs.
795 A.D., France or Germany. Carved ivory bookcover, showing man playing clappers, from the Dagulf psalter
Circa 850 A.D. Musicians in the Utrecht Psalter holding a lyre and clappers.
Circa 1250 A.D. Crusader Bible (MS M.638, fol. 39r) cropped for cliquettes. Also a bell and a one-handed recorder (with fipple mouthpiece and duct).
1280 A.D. Cliquettes or clappers (in the woman's hands) from the Musician's Codex, Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Cymbals
970 A.C. Cymbals in the Valcavado Beaus, Spain
Cymbals in the Golden Haggadah, circa 1320
*Frame drum
Jew's harp[13]
Circa 11th-15th century A.D. Jaw Harp made of copper alloy, found in Rutland. The instrument is missing its tongue.
Angel playing a guimbarde or Jew's harp, crypt of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux
Nakers
One man plays nakers on the move, carried on the shoulders of another man, circa 1338–1410 in Tournai, Belgium; from the Bodleian Library MS. Bodleian 264, pt. I, folio 58r.
1417, Czechoslovakia. Troubadors playing nakers and vielle, from the Olomouc Bible, folio 276R
Rattle

Jingles

Jingle bells
Sleigh bells

Vessel rattle

Crotal
Shaker

Frame rattle (see tambourine)

Row or rod rattles

Crotalus Ratchet

Rattles in the medieval period included vessel wrattles (crotals) and rod rattles and frame rattles. See also adulfe, clappers or cliquettes, tambourine, triangle

Crotals, also known as jingle bells, were two hemispherical, slotted sheets of metal soldered together, bulging where they connected the sheets into a ball. There was a pellet inside the ball. Historical uses included use by nobility on clothing, armor, tents and knights' horses and dogs, use by ladies for dancing (such as girls wearing bells ""à la morisque" around their hips, arms and ankles" for the reception of Charles V in Spain), and use by the fool as part of his garb (the fool's cap).[14][15]

Row or rod rattles; rattles strung on a straight or ring-shaped rod. Medieval triangles are illustrated with rattles in this manner.

1448, Germany. Triangle with rod rattles attached.
Circa 834 A.D., Norway. Oseberg metal wrattle, found in a grave in Oseberg.
Jester wearing crotal bells on the bottom of his tunic.
1473, Germany. Angel with crotals (crotal bells or rattles).
1448 A.D., Germany. Crotals (crotal bells). Also considered rattles.
Crotal rattle on the end of a handle. Two metal halves welded together (the bulge in the center).
Statue of a Jester or Fool wearing Cap and bells.
Cog rattle

Clatter

Crotalus

matraca

Grager

Ratchet

Has been used among Catholic Christians in religious ceremonies to replace bells. Among Catholics has been used to replace bells between the Gloria of the Mass of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the Easter Vigil.[16]

Among Jewish people a ratchet is used to make noise by the congregation during the celebration of Purim. Sephardi Jews immigrating to Spanish imperial holdings in the Americas following their 1492 expulsion from Spain brought gragers for celebrating Purim, which could pass as the matracha of Catholic usage.[17]

Wooden rattle
Wooden grogger or grager (Purim Noisemaker)
Tabor

Pipe and tabor

Early drums in Europe were "side drums", slung at the players side or worn over their shoulder.[18] These were tabors, double sided with snares of rope (possibly only on one side.[18] The drums were either beaten with two sticks, or played as a pipe and tabor combination.[18] Drum and fife association found in Basle in 1332.Larger drums come on the scene by the 1500s.[18]

A three-hole pipe or reed pipe paired with a snare drum, the musician playing both at once. A variation of this is the Tambourine de Bearn, in which a dulcimer or string drum replaces the snare drum.

Circa 1315 A.D., Macedonia. Drum, cymbals and recorder. This drum does not have a snare.
Circa 1473, Germany. Angel with pipe and tabor.
Pipe and tabor, from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, circa 1280 A.D.
Pipe and tabor
Tambourine de Bearn

String drum

Ttun-ttun

Tambourine de Bearn. This instrument is still used in Basque-language areas in Spain, called the ttun-ttun.
Tof

Timbrel[19]

Tambourine

Tof was the Hebrew instrument which Miriam played, "most commonly translated" into English as timbrel[20] Near eastern origin, used by Gauls, Greeks, Romans (tympanum), Egyptians, Assyrians.[21] Jingles were probably originally separate from this instrument.[21] Also related to Daff.[21]

A type of rattle, called a "frame wrattle" in which the rattles (or jingles) strike the object to which they are attached.

1300-1325 Belgium/Netherlands. Angel with tambourine in Maastricht Book of Hours, folio 129R
1320 A.D., Barcelona, from the Golden Haggadah; Miriam was known for playing the timbrel
Triangle
Circa 1457–1461, Oratory of San Bernardino, Perugia. Nakers and a triangle.
Musician plays triangle in Olomouc Bible, folio 276R

String instruments

[edit]
Names and variations Description Ethnic connections,
regions
Pictures
Citole[22][23]
Circa 1310 A.D. Citole from the Robert de Lisle Psalter.
Clavichord Clavichords were in existence in the "early years of the 15th century."[24] Word clavichord found in text from 1404.[24] Earliest known image dates to 1425, in an altarpiece carving in Minden, Germany.[24]
1448, Germany. Clavichord, Die 24 Alten (The 24 Elders), Coburg State Library, Ms Cas 43
Circa 1438, Italy. Detail of a clavichord from a painting by Perinetto da Benevento.
Crwth

Gue

Rote

Jouhikko

Stråkharpa

Talharpa

British Isles, from where it traveled through the Shetland Islands and Norway to Sweden, ending up in Estonia and Finland.
Crwth, Westminster Abbey, 14th century A.D.
An Estonian man playing the hiiu kannel (or, talharpa), ca. 1920.
Talharpa, Norway.
1029 A.D. King David playing the crwth from the Troparium et prosarium Sancti Martialis Lemovicensis, BNF Latin 1118, folio 104.
Watercolor from the 18th century of a Welsh crwth.
Stråkharpa, bowed lyre from Sweden, also called Jouhikko in Finland.
Dulcimer

Hammer dulcimer

A box zither; see psaltery.

"Little is known of the dulcimer before the mid-15th century."[25] Earliest known depiction is on ivory carving for book cover, 12th century A.D.[25][26]

Circa 1496–1498, France. Allegory of Music, in a manuscript of Echecs amoureux, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 143, fol. 65v
1473, Germany. Angel with a hammer dulcimer.
Hammer Dulcimer in painting Assumption of Mary by Bartolomeo della Gatta, circa 1473.
1448, Germany. Hammer Dulcimer, Detail from Die 24 Alten (The 24 Elders), Coburg State Library, Ms Cas 43.
Fiddle see also
Gusle
Kemenche
Kemenche of the Black Sea
Kemane of Cappadocia
Shikepshine
Lijerica
Lyra
Byzantine lyra
Calabrian lira
politiki lyra
Cretan lyra
Gadulka
Gudok
Pochette
Rebec
Rabel
Vielle
Vihuela de arco
14th century, Flemish artwork. Fiddle in the Reliquary of Saint Ursula. Fiddles such as this have been labeled fiddle, rabel and vielle. Names don't imply different instruments, but possibly reveal variations in music traditions.
Fiddle from Theodore Psalter, folio 191R, 11th century A.D., Byzantine Empire
Gittern[23]
Guitarra latina One writer has summed up the guitarra latina, which is not well defined, saying "For musicians in Alfonso’s time it may have meant only 'a plucked stringed instrument: not the Muslim one.'"[27]
Instrument on left has been called guitarra latina and citole. Instrument on right has been called guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) and vihuela peñola (quill plucked guitar).
Fiddle at left could be called a vielle. Instrument on left has been called both guitarra latina and citole.
Guitarra morisca[28]
unknown guitarra
unknown guitarra
Possible guitarras morisca. The Moors (if they mean Africans) had a tradition of wood-bowed lutes covered with leather. Arab/Persian Muslims had a different carved wood with leather tradition (barbat and gambus). Either group was called Moors in Spain.
Medieval harp (Medieval form of the modern harp)

Celtic harp

Irish Harp
cláirseach
Scottish harp
clàrsach
Breton
telenn
Welsh Harp
telyn

Not counting the ancient Greek harps, earliest depictions of harps in Europe include examples in Scotland (the Nigg Stone, late 8th century) and Ireland (early images in stone carvings appear to show oblong, c-shaped and triangular harps or lyres.[29]). Other early works can be seen from France, such as the ivory cover to the Dagulf Psalter in France and the 9th century illustrations in the Utrecht Psalter.

Harps were strung throughout Europe with gut strings. Exceptions include Ireland (where strings were of metal) and Wales (where portable harps used horsehair strings through the 17th century A.D.).[30]

For comparison of harps from across the ancient and medieval world, look at angular harps, arched harps, and konghou.

Circa 850 A.D., Utrecht Psalter, France. Anglo-Saxon drawn illustration of harp and cythara.
Armenian art included for comparison. Medieval harp, date unknown, resembles Anglo-Saxon/French harp in Utrecht Psalter.
13th century, Spain. King David playing harp, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Circa 1000 A.D., England. Anglo-Saxon drawing of a harper. Bodleian Library MS. Junius 11 folio 54
Harp from Theodore Psalter, 11th century A.D., Byzantine Empire
Circa 790-799 A.D., Nigg Stone, from Nigg, Highland, Scotland.
Late 10th-11th century A.D., England. Drawing from Anglo Saxon manuscript. This has been called a Welsh harper.[31]
Circa 1000-1100 A.D. Ireland. Early depiction of a cláirseach. Earlier depictions are known, but with different shapes.
Circa 1200 A.D, England. David playing a harp. Resembles Celtic harp.
Circa 1280 A.D., Spain. Sephardic Jewish musicians playing harps in the Musicians Codex of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Lute[32]
Rebec or rebab (left), lute right.
Lyra
Byzantine lyra
Cretan lyra
Fiddle, related to rebec
Later versions of the Cretan lyra, from a museum in Athens.
Circa 900 – 1100 A.D. Lyra on a Byzantine ivory casket, Museo Nazionale, Florence
Lyre

Anglo-Saxon lyre

Rotta

Trossingen lyre. Found in a 6th-century grave in Trossingen, Germany.
Trossingen lyre, showing pegs and the bridge.
Five-string lyre from the Durham Cassiodorus, 8th-century A.D., England
King David with his lyre, Vespasian Psalter, 8th century A.D.
Kravic lyre, excavated at the Kravic farm in Numedal, Norway. Made of pine with seven strings.
Woman with lyre, Germany circa 1125-1150, from the Zwiefalten Passionale
Monochord The monochord was a theoretical instrument illustrated in religious miniatures. A single string zither, which could produce different notes by pressure and plucking.
Early 12th century A.D. Top, spiritual music including monochord (top left), and King David surrounded by musicians. Bottom, carnal or secular music, the devil surrounded by dancers and musicians. From PSALTERIUM TRIPLEX, B.18, f.1r, St John's College Cambridge
Early 12th century A.D. Monochord, illustrated in manuscript of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, Cambridge, University Library Ii.3.12, fol. 61v.
1473, Germany. Angel with a monochord.
Organistrum (large form of medieval hurdy-gurdy)

Hurdy-gurdy

Nyckelharpa

Symphonia

Possible symphonia, a name that meant hurdy-gurdy or organstrum from the 12th century on.[33]
1473, Germany. Angel with a hurdy-gurdy.
Psaltery
1390 A.D., Monastery of Piedra, Spain. Triangular psaltry.
1280 A.D. Cantigas de Santa Maria. Psaltery being played with two hands, probably base at bottom to treble strings higher.
Rabel Fiddle, probably variation of rebec. Survives today in Basque speaking areas; historically had leather soundboard; modern instruments may have wooden soundboard. The instrument traveled to the Spanish colonies in America, where it can be found today in Panama.
1170 A.D. Fiddle player with flutist. Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 229 (U.3.2), folio 21V
Modern Galacian rabel
Musicians from the arch of the 12th entury A.D. West portal of Santo Domingo Church, Soria, Spain
Rabel from Cantabria, at the Ethnographic Museum of Cantabria
Unnamed fiddle. Possibly rabel or vihuela de arco or rebec. Santiago Catedral Quintana
18th century, Cantabria. Rabel constructed in area where tradition still existed.
Asturias. An arrabita or rabela (Basque) with a wooden resonance box in the shape of a figure 8 and a leather cover. It has three gut strings. The bow has a string of white bristles.
Rabel at the Ethnographic Museum of Cantabria
Rebab

Rabé morisco

Rebab is a word for various kinds of fiddle in the Muslim world. Spelling is loose, because Arabic does not write down vowels sounds. Rabab, rebab, rubab, ribab have all been used, and some of them are used for plucked instruments in Asia as well.
Bowed instrument resembling Maghreb rebabs. Spanish and Catalonian names for this include Rebac and Rabel (both are instruments played on the arm, rather than the knee), but its shape closely resembles these.
circa 1437. Angel performing for Mary, Queen of Heaven playing a rebab. Panel of the Altarpiece of Santa María la Mayor of Albalate del Arzobispo (province of Teruel). It is preserved in the Museum of Zaragoza.
Rebabs from 1280 A.D. that resemble modern Maghreb rebabs. These have also been called rabé morisco (Moorish rebecs).
Instrument seen only in Cantigas de Santa Maria. Resembles guitarra but is played vertically like a rebab or a later viol (viola de gamba or vihuela de gamba). Unlike these, it is shown played vertically while standing.
Rebec[34]
1509, Bruges. Rebec player with 3-string instrument
Rabel or possibly rebec. Line around edge of soundboard indicates this instrument had a skin soundboard.
11th century A.D. Rebec or fiddle from Harley manuscript 4951, folio 297V in the British Library.
1330 A.D. Pamplona Cathedral. Rebec player with 2-string instrument.
Rotte
Circa 1100 A.D., Italy. King David playing rotte accompanied by a man playing fiddle, from the Psalter of Polirone, Mantua, Teresiana Library, ms. 340, f. 1v-2r.
Tromba marina

Trumpet marine

1448 A.D., Germany. Tromba marina.
Vielle

Vièle

Modern reproduction of vielle.
Modern reproduction of vielle or viola de arco.
1417 A.D. Italy, Painting Madonna of the Belvedere by Ottaviano Nelli
1280 A.D., Spain. Possible vielles. Could also be vihuela de arco
1310 A.D., England. Vielle in the Ormesby Psalter.
Vihuela

Viola

In the Iberian Peninsula, small lutes are pictured, which have been considered as possible cytharas and citoles. In Portugal, the tradition remained into the modern era, the instruments called violas. They were vihuelas in Spain. Vihuela eventually became a large guitar-like instrument of the Renaissance. Violas remained small. The name viola has been reused for a variety of instruments including viola da gamba, viola (a modern fiddle).
1175 A.D., Rylands Beatus
1125-1150, Zwiefalten Passionale. Two men (troubadours?) with musical instruments: a small figure-8 guitar (right) and a set of panpipes (left).
1175 A.D., Rylands Beatus
1175 A.D., Rylands Beatus
Vihuela de arco

Viola de arco

Vihuela de arco pequeña (small bowed vihuela)

The vihuela de arco may be a variant of the vielle. Spain had a variety of fiddles (which predate the violin) in the cathedral artwork and manuscript miniatures.
Possibly the vihuela de arco (bowed vihuela) and vihuela de penola (quill plucked vihuela) The bowed instrument could be called a vielle
Vihuela de arco (bowed vihuela). The downward bowed fiddles came to be called Viols, as in Viola de gamba (viol of the legs). Vihuela was the Spanish name, and in Spain the vihuelas became plucked more than bowed.
Spain, "second third of 10th century".[35] Vihuelas de arco or Violas de arco played with a bow. From Commentary on the Apocalypse, Codice VITR 14.1.[36]
Zither

Wind instruments

[edit]
Names and variations Description Ethnic connections, regions Pictures Pictures
Albogón[37] Double-reed instrument or type of shawm, possibly adapted from Muslim al-buq horn.[38]
1280 A.D., Spain. Cantigas de Santa Maria, Codex of the Musicians, folio 268v. Instrument called Albogón.[37][38]
Alboka

Hornpipe

Pibgorn

Pinole

Traditional instruments of shepherds. Reedpipes in which the reed body has been replaced by another material such as wood or bone. The single reed (once part of the body of the reedpipe) is now separated; it is now inserted into the instrument's body. The other end of the reed is inserted into the musicians mouth and blown through to produce sound. Hornpipes have a protective cup over the reed, to blow into. Crumhorns also use this protected reed system, though with double reeds.
Alboka, Spanish hornpipe. The musician blowns into a horn cup, which channels his breath through one or more single reeds. Each reed is connected to pipe with fingerholes.
Gaita gastore, Spanish reed pipe, wooden body with single reed (no cover) and horn bell.
Pibole, French reed pipe, wooden or bone body, single reed (no cover), horn bell
Muse, French for reed pipes such as the pibole, gaita gastore. Related to musette (bagpipe)

See also shephard's horn (below)

Modern alboka. This one was constructed in the Basque region of Spain or Southern France.
above: Gaita gastore; below: Gaitas serranas.
Drawings of tubular single reeds in which the reed is still part of the reed stem.
1280 A.D., folio 304v from the Musician's Codex, Cantigas de Santa Maria. Depiction of alboka (left) and reedpipe.
Pibole, from a frescoe in the church of Vieux Pouzauges, circa 1220 AD
Bagpipes[39]

Bellows pipe

Zampogna

1280 A.D., Spain. Bagpipes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex
1280 A.D., Spain. Bagpipes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 330.
1280 A.D., Spain. Bagpipes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex.
Bladder pipe
1280 A.D., Spain. Bladder pipes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 209R.
1280 A.D., Spain. Bladder pipes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 277R.
Bombard Bagpipe of Brittany
Buisine

Anafil

Nafir

Europeans used horns for trumpets until adapting the Muslim nafir. It was renamed the anafil in Spain and the buisine in France. Europeans developed the instrument further into the herald trumpet or clarion near the end of the medieval period.
Utrecht Psalter, 9th century, France. Horns showing signs of assembly (bands around outside) into the shape of cows horns.
1280 A.D., Spain. Anafils in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Clarion

Fanfare trumpet

Herald trumpet

Clarion today implies high, angelic, pealing notes. That sound was developed, however, as Europeans began to learn to shape and bend sheet-metal tubes. Earlier Europeans showed angels playing horns. Cornett would also come to hit clarion notes.
1248 A.D., Italy. Angels playing trumpets. Trumpets before the anafil were horns or were constructed of wood. Larger instruments kept the cattle-horn shape.
1511, England. Heralds, including John Blanke, with clarions or herald trumpets.
Circa 1412, France. Clarion trumpet, buisine trumpet, 2 shawms
Cornett

Fingerhole trumpets

In the 1500s-1600s, cornetts were carved wooden fingerhole trumpets, played from the corner of the mouth. In the medieval period, wooden fingerhole trumpets (and fingerhole cowhorns) are indicated in art such as the Winchcombe Psalter.
Shepherd's horn with fingerholes, carved from wood. Russia. Ganu rags (Latvian)
11th century A.D., Winchcombe Psalter. Cornett or fingerhole horn.
Crumhorn Probably a Renaissance instrument, the sound mechanism is a bundle of reeds beneath the wooden cap. The musician blew through the cap.
The reed bundle
Modern recreations of crumhorns
Flageolet
Flute
1280 A.D., Spain. Transverse flute in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex.
Gemshorn A recorder made from horn.[40] Common to use ox horn after 1375 A.D.[40] Originally made from chamois horn.[40] In later music, the instrument made of ox horn fills the gap between the flageolet and the recorder.[40] German
Gams or Gems (for chamois)
Gemshorn.
Horn

Bockhorn or Bukkehorn

Blowing horn

Hunting horn

Signal horn

Battle horn

Olifant

Swedish cowhorn

Shofar

War horn

Trumpets made from cattle horns (or from other materials and shaped like cattle horns) and other animal horns such as goats (bukkehorn) or sheep (shofar). Carved ivory horns of this style were called oliphants. Words in English: cowhorn, bullhorn, oxhorn, steerhorn. Among peaceful uses of these horns was for farmers to call to their cattle herds to bring them in.[41] Could be drilled with as many as three or four fingerholes.[41] Bockhorns have been found with fingerholes as far back as the Iron Age.[41] Norway/Sweden
vallhorn, tuthorn, tjuthorn, björnhorn[41]
fingerhole version låthhorn, spelhorn, prillarhorn[41]
Günter Sommer, German man playing a cowhorn. His horn has a mouthpiece, giving him more control of pitch.
11th century A.D., Italy. Olifant, ivory hunting horn.
Bockhorn made from goat's horn, traditional to Norway and Sweden. Could also be made of ram's horn or cow horn.[41]
Circa 1910, Nörstmo Halvar Halvarson, a Swedish man, playing a kohorn (cowhorn). Placing the hand over the end gives some pitch control.
1280 A.D., Spain. Possible horns in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 243V. Horns appear to have mouthpieces; possible shawms (with a disk at the mouth, where a reed goes into the mouth), but shawms would have fingerholes.[42]
Basque blowing a horn.
Man playing a shofar in Ukraine.
Olifant Hunting or war horns carved from ivory
Ivory olifant hunting horn
Medieval trumpet

Iberian trumpet

Circa 1255 A.D., England or France. Apocalypse Picture Book. The top trumpets have texture like birch trumpets. They have fingerholes and narrow mouthpieces and could be cornetts.
re-creation of Iberian style trumpet
1000-1050 A.D., Harley Psalter, England. From the left a fingerhole horn/trumpet, harp, fingerhole horn/trumpet, lute. Harley Psalter; art copied or inspired from earlier Utrecht Psalter.
Organ

Pipe organ

Organs invented in antiquity, but not common in Europe.[43] Under reigns of Pepin the short and Charlemagne, the organ was re-introduced to Europe, starting in about 757 A.D.[43]

Theophilus's organ in the 11th century A.D., used bellows activated by body weight.[44] That was refined to make all air from three bellows enter into a common channel.[44]

Smaller organs are illustrated that are now called portative organs and positive organs.

850 A.D., Utrecht Psalter.
1260 A.D.
Portative Organ
1401-1500 A.D.
1280 A.D., Spain. Portative organ in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 185V
1489, St. Ursula Shrine, Belgium.
Positive organ A tabletop pipe organ
1484-1500, France. One lady plays the pipe organ, with assistance from another on bellows.
1451 A.D.
Panpipes

Panflute

842-850 A.D., Carolingian Empire. Panpipes in the Benedictine Psalter.
Circa 1180 A.D., Spain. Shepherd playing panpipes. This style of panpipe is a solid block of wood with drilled holes for the flute’s tubes.
Early 12th century, Rheims, France. King David playing harp, accompanied by panpipes, singing (psalms?) and cowhorn.
Panpipes, circa 1125-1150, from Passionale, pars hiemalis - Cod.bibl.fol.57 number 520-257v
Panpipes (right) and pibole (reed pipe with single reed, bone body and horn bell).
Circa 1496, Germany. Shepherds playing panpipes, in detail of painting by Albrecht Dürer. Pipers are made individually and assembled into a group.
Recorder

duct flute

Svirel

dudka
dudka-dvoychatka
sopel
solpilka
pyzhatka
Recorders are fairly rare in medieval art, the pipe (for pipe and tabor) being more common. Possibly began main start in European music in Northern Italy in the 14th century, and was established at the beginning of the 16th century.[45] It is difficult to tell from art if a recorder is presented (with a thumb hole) or a "some kind of folk pipe (without the thumb hole)."[45]

In comparison, reed pipes had a very limited range of notes (having only 3-4 holes and being played with one hand). Recorders and pipes with the holes requiring two hands to play had a broader range of notes. Another detail difficult to see is the mechanism of sound; recorders are flutes in which the sound is produced by a fipple.[45] Reed pipes such as aulos used reed bundles like a shawm to produce notes, or single reeds like the zummara.[45]

Three and four hole pipes have been excavated in Novgorod, dating to the 11th and 15th centuries A.D. The timeline is not clear for the development into flutes with more holes. It isn't certain whether pipes with 3-4 holes were played alone, with a timbrel or tabor, or in pairs.

Double flutes in Eastern Europe date back to the 12th-13th centuries.[46] Used in Russia, Belarus, western Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.[46]

Sopel from Novgarod
From the left dudka, dudka dvoychatka (a pair), and pyzhatka (all can be categorized svirel, flutes)
Circa 1315 A.D., Macedonia. Possibly a recorder. Otherwise a folk pipe or reed pipe.
Solpilka double flute
Dvojnice double flute from former Yugoslavia.
Reed pipes

Clarinet

Launeddas

Zhaleika

Zummara

See also alboka, in above in this table.

Europeans made pipes out of reeds, splitting a reed to make a single reed. A single 3-hole reed pipe could be used for the pipe and tabor. The Launeddas was a more elaborate reed pipe, with multiple pipes; each might have its own reed or one reed might sound multiple pipes. These are more common in medieval art than the recorder (which has more holes and requires both hands to play).

Reed pipe traditions around the world include Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

1280 A.D., Spain. Single-reed pipes, held together as a pair, called zummara. Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 350R.
Circa 845 A.D., France. Jeduthun was depicted playing this instrument, shaped like an Iberian trumpet, but probably a reed pipe. No fingerholes visible.
1280 A.D., Spain. Reed pipes, possibly a launeddas, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex. The illustration shows multiple pipes sounded by a single reed.
Double Zhaleika or Zhaleyka reed pipes, Russia and Belorussia. Pipes have a split in the sidewall at the top, going with the grain to create a reed.
Sackbut[47] Renaissance instrument, ancestor of the trombone. Medieval variant was clarion or slide trumpet.
A forerunner of the sackbut-trombone was the buisine with an s-curve.
Shawm[48]

piccolo oboe or musette

oboe

Double-reed instruments. The reed bundle is inserted through a disk (used for breath control, for uninterrupted sound, playing while the musician breathes.)

In France, musettes were small oboes until the 16th century, when they became bagpipes.[49] The musette was a small keyless double-reed chalumeau, with a visibly conical bore and a pear-shaped bell.

Shawm and clappers in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 330.
Circa 845 A.D., France. Clappers and a horn with a very sharp tip to blow through. Possibly could be blown like a cornet or shofar (also have narrow opening), or it could be a reed horn (an oboe with a single reed or shawm/oboe with a double reed).
Shawms in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 350R.
Musettes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, folio 276V.
Willow flute

Seljefløyte

Sälgflöjt

Švilpynė

Telenka (Ukrainian Тилинка)

Pitkähuilu

telincă (Romanian)

Kalyuka

These instruments are commonly called willow whistles because they use the bark of a willow tree (the tube created when the center is pulled from inside the bark) to make a whistle. The Russian kalyuka also makes a tube for a whistle, often out of thistle. The two instruments are played the same way, by varying the force of the air blown into the mouthpiece, with the end of the tube being covered by the finger or left open. Norway

Sweden

Finland

Karelia

Lithuania

Russia

Ukraine

Norwegian willow whistle (Seljefløyte)
Kalyuka
Shepherd's horn[50]

Näverlur

Birch trumpet

Pastusheskiy rog (Пастушеский рог)

kugikly (кугиклы)[50]
dudki (дудки)[50]
manki (манки)[50]
Horns constructed of strips of birchbark or alder bark rolled into tubes, or into cups to fit onto the end of flutes or reedpipes. Also fingerhole horn carved of wood. A mouthpiece is inserted; they may have reed tongues (making them reed horns, shawms or obes) a trumpet mouthpiece, or a tip to make them into flutes. Holes may be cut into the bark tube as well.[51][52][50] Instruments may also be built with a mouthpiece resembling a cup or funnel, in which the player uses his lips to create the sound.[53] Sweden, Russia, Karelia, Belarus, Ukraine, former Yugoslavia
Birch bark horn
Belgorod region, Russia. Horn (a toy?) made for a holiday celebration; material to vibrate when blown are inserted at the narrow end. A reed horn.
Birchbark trumpet or näverlur.
1930, Sweden. Young woman playing a birch trumpet.
Horns constructed by shepherds in Karelia. Part of culture of Karelians.
Clay trumpet Horns of clay
12th-13th century, Valencia. Horn made from clay.
Tabor Pipe A two or three-hole pipe of wood or reed, played with the tabor; the combination is called pipe and tabor. Three-hole flutes have two front finger holes and one back thumb hole.
One handed pipes suitable for accompanying the tabor.
Circa 1240smThe Morgan Bible, Folio 25. Pipe and bell. Like the tabor pipe, this is played with one hand, while the other hand plays a different instrument.
1320 A.D., Peterborough Psalter (Brussels copy). Pipe and tabor
Wooden trumpet

Bemastocc

A yew-wood trumpet was found in the Erne River.[54] It was attributed to the "early Christian Period...8th-10th century."[54] Has resemblance to the trumpets in the Vespasian Psalter.[55]

Trumpet was carved in two halves and bound together with strips of bronze, with a bronze mouthpiece.[54][55]

Bemastocc (Old-English bem trumpet + stocc wood)
Circa 850 A.D., Utrecht Psalter, France/Germany. Trumpets drawn by Anglo-Saxon artists.
Musician plays a wooden trumpet in the Tiberius Psalter, circa 1075-1250 A.D.
Circa 1225 A.D. Horn with bands from Southern portal of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Beaulieu, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne
Circa 1315, Macedonia. Trumpet, possibly wood.
8th century A.D., England. Wooden trumpets from Vespasian Psalter (Canterbury Psalter, MS Cotton Vespasian A.I, fol. 30v).
9th century A.D., Makuria. St. Michael holding an orb and a trumpet. The trumpet has bands around it. Example of cross-Mediterranean medieval culture, part of Coptic Church in Faras.

Groups of musicians

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Gutwirth, Eleazar (1998). "Music, Identity and the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain". Early Music History. 17: 161–181. doi:10.1017/S0261127900001637. ISSN 0261-1279. JSTOR 853882.
  2. ^ Mauricio Molina (2006). Frame Drums in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula. pp. 101–. ISBN 978-0-542-85095-0. Retrieved 25 December 2012.
  3. ^ a b Schechter, John M. (1984). "Adulfe". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. p. 25.
  4. ^ Sienna, Noam (4 December 2018). "March to Your Own Drummer: The History of Hennaed Drums (Part One)".
  5. ^ a b c d e Price, Percival (1984). "Bell: 5 Bellfounding". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. p. 214.
  6. ^ a b c d Price, Percival (1984). "Chimes". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. pp. 351–352.
  7. ^ a b Butler, Bevin. "Silencing the Bells: A Statement of Power in Medieval Spain". medievalists.net. The Eagle Feather, Vol.7 (2010)...the bells of the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela that were stolen by Muslim armies in 997 A.D. and taken to Cordova as spoils of war...More than 200 years later they were recaptured by Christian armies... To the Muslims, the bells were symbols of their oppression by Christians because the bells were rung to cover the call of the faithful to prayers by the Muezzins...[to] Christian community...the bells were used to regulate village life by alerting the people to the proper times to wake, to pray, and to sleep as well as informing them of deaths in their community.
  8. ^ "Refectory Bell". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  9. ^ Linda Schaitberger. "THE BELL-FOUNDER OF BRESLAU". revisionist.net/. on May 17, 1945, an explosion destroyed the south tower. Part of the church collapsed and demolished the bridge connecting the towers, the gable end and the main portal (west) with its valuable sculptures as well as the vaults and the famous 'Bell of the Sinners', cast in 1386. It was probably the largest bell in Silesia with a circumference of 6.30 meters and an inner height of 1.80 meters, and was rung on holidays and the Lord's Prayer.
  10. ^ Ad Dardanum, de diversis generibus musicorum instrumentorum.
  11. ^ Trede, Juliane. "Image 109 of Saint Jerome's "Instruments of Hieronymus" and other Music Manuscripts". Library of Congress.
  12. ^ Sebastian Virdung (1993). Musica Getutscht - A Treatise on Musical Instruments (1511) by Sebastian Virdung. Cambridge University Press. p. 116,117,118. ISBN 978-0-521-30830-4. [note, Virdung first published Musica Getutscht in Basel in 1511.]
  13. ^ The Jew's harp : a comprehensive anthology. Leonard Fox. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. 1988. ISBN 0-8387-5116-4. OCLC 16356799.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ Marcuse, Sibyl (1975). A Survey of Musical Instruments. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 80–91.
  15. ^ Marcuse, Sibyl (1966). "Rattle". Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. A complete, authoritative encyclopedia of instruments throughout the world. London: Country Life Limited. p. 435f.
  16. ^ "Rätsch II". Schweizerisches Idiotikon digital. Schweizerisches Idiotikon. Vol. 6. p. 117.
  17. ^ Tenorio, Rich (16 August 2016). "When the Spanish Inquisition expanded to the New World". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
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  19. ^ "TIMBREL - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  20. ^ Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1984). "Timbrel". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. p. 585.
  21. ^ a b c Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1984). "Tambourine". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. p. 511.
  22. ^ "Citole". British Museum.
  23. ^ a b Baker, Paul. "The Gittern and Citole". Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  24. ^ a b c Ripin, Edwin M. (1984). "Clavichord". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. pp. 415–417.
  25. ^ a b Kettlewell, David (1984). "Dulcimer". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. p. 627.
  26. ^ "A marvel in gold and ivory: Queen Melisende's Psalter". 26 May 2022. [Caption for photograph of the book cover. The dulcimer is in bottom right corner of book-cover carving] The Melisende Psalter, Upper cover with scenes from the life of David: Egerton MS 1139/1
  27. ^ Bouterse, Curt. "Medieval Instruments V: Fiddles – Curt Bouterse".
  28. ^ Galpin, Francis William (1911). Old English Instruments of Music. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company. pp. 21–22.
  29. ^ Chadwick, Simon. "Early medieval depictions of harpers on stone, manuscript and metal".
  30. ^ Sally Harper (2022). "Chapter 4 - Secular Music before 1650". In Trevor Herbert; Martin V. Clarke; Helen Barlow (eds.). A History of Welsh Music. Cambridge University Press. pp. 78–99. doi:10.1017/9781009036511.007. ISBN 9781009036511. A self-accompanying poet like Dafydd ap Gwilym would have used a small, portable harp, perhaps a form of the telyn raun (or rawn)...This horsehair-strung instrument remained prevalent in the Welsh bardic context until at least the seventeenth century...Other types of harp were nevertheless known in Wales, including the metal-strung harp used by the Irish...Gut strings were the norm elsewhere in Europe and England, but apparently despised in Wales, at least by some...
  31. ^ Lavoix, Henri Marie (1884). Histoire de la musique. p. 89. Harpe des Bardes Gallois
  32. ^ "A Panoply of Instruments for Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music". Music Educators Journal. 65 (9): 38–69. 1979. doi:10.2307/3395616. ISSN 0027-4321. JSTOR 3395616.
  33. ^ Brown, Howard Mayer (1984). "Symphonia". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. p. 483.
  34. ^ Spohnheimer. "The Rebec". Music.iastate.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  35. ^ "Título uniforme [In Apocalipsin] Title Beati in Apocalipsin libri duodecim". bdh.bne.es. BIBLIOTECA DIGITAL HISPÁNICA. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  36. ^ "Título uniforme [In Apocalipsin] Title Beati in Apocalipsin libri duodecim". bdh.bne.es. Biblioteca Digital Hispánica. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  37. ^ a b Centre Int. de la Música Medieval (11 February 2023). "ALBOGÓN. Ms. b.I.2. fol. 268v. RBME. Cantiga de Santa María 388". youtube.com. [note: video of a modern recreation of the Albogón
  38. ^ a b Bouterse, Curt. "Medieval Instruments VI: Winds". Another unusual instrument depicted in the Cantigas is the albogón. This was derived from the Arabic al-buq, originally a generic word for horns and trumpets, but latterly restricted to horns. Supposedly, in the 10th century, during the reign of the Spanish Umayyad caliph, al-Hakam II, a horn was fitted with a double reed and fingerholes...Cantiga 300 shows a huge one being played, accompanied by an hourglass-shaped drum.
  39. ^ Jones, G. Fenwick (1949). "Wittenwiler's "Becki" and the Medieval Bagpipe". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 48 (2): 209–228. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27713052.
  40. ^ a b c d FitzPatrick, Horace (1984). "Gemshorn". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. p. 33.
  41. ^ a b c d e f Kjellström, Birgit (1984). "Bockhorn". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. p. 242.
  42. ^ Bouterse, Curt. "Medieval Instruments VI: Winds".
  43. ^ a b von Katzenelnbogen, Johann (23 April 2017). "The Utrecht Psalter and its Furnishings - Part IV". According to The Organ; An Encyclopedia, the organ was "re-introduced" into Western Europe from Byzantium in the time of Pepin the Short, (in 757 AD) and Charlemagne. While these two incidents are recorded and thus textual evidence for actual events, the fact that they are illustrated in the Utrecht Psalter and the Stuttgart Psalter testify to them being fairly commonplace at the beginning of the 9th century.
  44. ^ a b Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1984). "Organ: Construction, 2: Medieval Chest and 3: Medieval bellows". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. pp. 839–840.
  45. ^ a b c d Hunt, Edgar (1984). "Recorder: History". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. pp. 205–208.
  46. ^ a b "Flute". Музыкальная энциклопедия. Том 4. — М (Musical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. - M.): Советская энциклопедия (Soviet Encyclopedia). 1978. pp. 884–976.
  47. ^ Spohnheimer. "The Sacbut". Music.iastate.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  48. ^ Spohnheimer. "The Renaissance Shawm". Music.iastate.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
  49. ^ Letourmy, Georgina (2000). Le 11e arrondissement. Itinéraires d'histoire et d'architecture, Action Artistique Ville Paris, coll. " Paris en 80 quartiers ". FeniXX réédition numérique. ISBN 9782402071420.
  50. ^ a b c d e Antykova N.I. "Исторические аспекты развития народных инструментов в Оренбургской области" [Historical aspects of the development of folk instruments in the Orenburg region]. Greyish.ru (in Russian). ...settlers from the Tver region brought a horn (a shepherd's instrument)...belongs to reed aerophones, the sound in which occurs from the vibration of...an oscillating reed. The material for the horn is exclusively alder. The pipe is made from an alder shoot, about a finger thick (12-14 mm).

    [source cited at end of article:] The Fifth Lazarev Readings: "Faces of Traditional Culture": Proc. of the International Scientific Conf. Chelyabinsk, February 25–26, 2011: in 2 parts / Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts; ed. by prof. N. G. Apukhtin. – Chelyabinsk, 2011. – Part II. – 350 p.]
  51. ^ Финченко А. Е. (Finchenko A. E.) (1982). "Восточнославянские народные музыкальные инструменты в собрании МАЭ" [East Slavic Folk Musical Instruments in the MAE Collection Archive] (PDF). Памятники культуры народов Европы и европейской части СССР (Cultural Monuments of the Peoples of Europe and the European Part of the USSR) (in Russian). 38. Ленинград (Leningrad): Наука (Nauka): 86, 89. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2021. {{cite journal}}: External link in |journal= (help)
  52. ^ "Рог пастушеский. Русские. Россия, Архангельская область (Архангельская губ.). Конец XIX - начало XX вв" [Shepherd's horn. Russians. Russia, Arkhangelsk region (Arkhangelsk province). Late 19th - early 20th centuries.] (in Russian). [museum exhibit information for birchbark trumpet:] Museum room MAE No. 1877-5
    Name, title Shepherd's horn
    Ethnicity Russians
    Place of creation Russia, Arkhangelsk region (Arkhangelsk province)
    Geographic localization of the place of creation East Europe
    Time of creation Late 19th - early 20th centuries
    Collector - private individual Zhuravsky Andrey Vladimirovich
    Material birch bark, wood, fabric
    Size Overall length - 17.5; circumference length at the bell - 32.0; bell diameter - 10.0; mouthpiece diameter - 9.0; circumference length at the mouthpiece - 3.5
  53. ^ "Пастушеский рожок" [Shepherd's Horn]. spacenation.info (in Russian). Archived from [spacenation.info/pastusheskii.html the original] on 16 March 2016. [Talking about the lip-activated trumpet:] instead of a squeaker or whistle, this instrument has a mouthpiece that resembles a cup or funnel, and the sound is produced by contact with the lips, folded in a special way. The instruments differ in the length of the barrel and the number of holes (from three to six). The sound resembles a human voice. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  54. ^ a b c Waterman, D. M. (1969). "An Early Medieval Horn from the River Erne". Ulster Jouirnial of Archaeology. 32: 101–104. JSTOR 20567644.
  55. ^ a b Purse, John (2002). "Reconstructing the River Erne Horn". Ulster Journal of Archaeology. 61: 17–25. JSTOR 20568294.