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click on image for bladder pipe sound (164 wav) 
or here for a short mp3

The bladder pipe is a very distinctive loud instrument which has a reed which is enclosed by an animal bladder. The performer blows into the bladder through its mouthpiece, a wooden pipe. Like the bag of a bagpipe, the bladder serves as a wind reservoir keeping the lips from touching the reed directly. The bladder pipe's sound is unusual because the player is unable to tongue or otherwise control the reed. This medieval instrument was one of the principal early wind cap instruments and is considered the forerunner to the crumhorn. Since it cannot overblow for an upper register, the fingering is even similar to the crumhorn.

Early images of bladder pipes sometimes show the instrument with a second pipe parallel to the first, apparently serving as a drone. The instrument existed before medieval times with Aristophanes in Lysistrata mentioning a wind instrument called a physalis (a word derived from bladder). It is mentioned in medieval literature and is shown in art from the time. Two bladder pipes, for example, are among the instruments illustrating Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of sacred songs written for the court of Alfonso el Sabio (reigned from 1252-1284). By the sixteenth century, the bladder pipe had become an instrument associated with beggars and peasants.

Musica Antiqua's bladder pipe has a bladder from a sheep. It looks like parchment and crackles as it is filled. Replacement cost for the bladder is currently $50.

Additional Resources:

• G Kinsky: 'Doppelrolrblatt-Instrumente mit Windkapsel', AMw vii (1925), 253-96
• A. Baines: Woodwind Instruments and their History (London, 1957, rev. 3/1967)
• H. Becker: Zur Entwicklungsgeschichter der antiken und mittelalterlichen Rohrblattinstrumente (Hamburg, 1966)
• R. Weber: 'Tournebout-Pifia-Bladderpipe (Platerspiel)', GSJ, (1977)

(curtal)

"The common bleting musicke is the drone,  
hobuis and curtoll."

-Stephen Batman, 1582

One of the most significant innovations in sixteenth century woodwind instrument building was the development of the double bore principle. Two parallel holes drilled in the same piece of wood and connected at one end by a U-curve allowed aninstrument to sound twice as low for its apparentlength as one with a single bore. Little is known about where the earliest development took place, although some evidence points to Italy. The name dulcian (also dulzian, dulzian, dolzone, delzan, dulcan, dolcan) is from the Latin dulcis (sweet). This instrument was also called the curtal (or curtoll, curtail) from the Latin curtus(short).

By the end of the sixteenth century the dulcian had become a part of the town band. The bass shawm was did not last because it was too cumbersome and heavy. The dulcian could be used not only as an outdoor band instrument, but also in church to double the bass line on motets and masses, and in the courtly chamber for more intimate secular music. To counteract the bottom-heavy sound created by its conical bore, and to allow it to play with softer instruments, a perforated mute or bell cap, looking much like a pepper shaker, may be inserted in the open end. According to Praetorius, this makes the tone considerably softer and more beautiful.

The dulcian was made in several sizes and has a range of about two and one-half octaves (C to g1). As the name indicates, the tone has a dolce quality when compared to the shawm. The bass size was the one which lasted as the forerunner of the bassoon.

Musica Antiqua's collection includes a cherrywood bass dulcian in C by Gunther Koerber of Germany and a Moeck bass dulcian.

Additional Resources:

• T. Albonesi: Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam (Pavia, 1539)
• L. Zacconi: Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592/r1967)
• M. Praetorius: Syntagma musicum, ii (Wolfenbuttel, 1618/r1958)
• M. Mersenne: Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636/r1963)
• H. de Garsault: Notionaire (Paris, 1761)
• J. B. de La Borde: Essai sur la musique (Paris, 1780/r1972)
• E. Ozi: Methode nouvelle et raisonnee (Paris, 1787)
• W. Heckel: Der Fagott (Biebrich, 1899)
• F. W. Galpin: 'Romance of the Phagotum', PMA, lxvii (1940-41), 57
• B. Klitz: 'A Composition for Dolzaina', JAMS, xxiv (1971), 113
• W. Voigt: Untersuchungen zur Formantbildung in Klangen von Fagott und Dulzianen(Regensburg, 1975)
• G. Joppig: Die Entwicklung der Doppelrohrblatt-Instrumente (Frankfurt am Main, 1980)
• W. Jansen: The Bassoon: its History, Construction, Makers, Players, and Music (Buren, 1984)

click image for harp sound (220kb wav) 
or here for the same in mp3 format

"Teach him to harpe with his nayles sharpe"
-Kyng Horn, 13th century

The harp is one of the most ancient types of stringed instruments. It was important in pre-Christian cultures and still survives today in many forms all over the world. Harps use open strings exclusively, thus the range of each is determined by the number of strings. In the Middle Ages strings were made from twisted animal gut (usually from sheep), although horse hair and even silk were used as well.

Each string of the harp is attached to a wooden peg or metal pin. Strings are tuned by adjusting these pegs or pins. Since tuning was diatonic, only one mode could be used at a time.

According to the Laws of Wales (twelfth century), the three items indispensable to a gentleman were his harp, his cloak, and his chessboard, while the three proper things for any man to have in his house were a virtuous wife, his cushion on his chair, and his harp in tune.

Due to the lack of a notation system, little is known about how the harp was used, how it accompanied troubadour melodies and what kind of preludial and interludial material might have been performed. Players relied on memory and improvisation.

The harp had an important role in legend and folklore. It not only was the instrument assigned to King David, but also was credited with supernatural powers which could destroy the feynde's myght.

The Romanesque harp was developed in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. One of Musica Antiqua's harps is based on a late twelfth century English Bible illumination. It has twenty gut strings, a range of almost three octaves (f to d3), is thirty inches tall, and is ideally suited to accompany minstrel, troubadour and trouvere songs. The brass strung clarsach replica was made by Tim Hobrough of Scotland.

Additional Resources:

• J. Bermudo: Declaracion de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1555/r1957)
• V. Galilei: Dialogo...della musica antica e della moderna (Florence, 1581/r1968)
• M. Mersenne: Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636/r1963)
• E. Jones: Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards (London, 1784)
• E. Bunting: A General Collection of Ancient Irish Music (London and Dublin, 1796/r1969)
• S. F. de Genlis: Nouvelle methode pour harpe (Paris, 1802/r1974)
• F. W. Galpin: Old English Instruments of Music (London, 1910)
• F. Harrison and J. Rimmer: European Musical Instruments (London, 1964)

King David playing the harp 
stained glass by P. von Andlau - late 15th century 
formerly in the choir of the collegiate at Tubingen 
now in the Wurtemburg museum at Stuttgart

(tenor cornett) 

click on image for lizard sound (104 kb wav)
or here for same in mp3 format

The tenor of the zink family (also known as lysard or lysarden) has the peculiar curved shape of a flattened letter s. Besides giving the instrument its name, this shape helps the player cover the finger holes on this longer zink. The holes for each hand happen to be in the portion of the curves which are closest to the player. The lizard's tone is pleasing, yet rather foggy. It blends well with voices and plays on one of the inner voices of an ensemble. A Lyserden is listed in the waits' band of Exeter in 1575 and a lysarden appears in the inventory made in 1602 of the instruments at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, that belonged to Thomas Kytson. Refer to the serpent page to see the bass of the cornett family.

Musica Antiqua's collection includes a replica by Moeck

Additional Resources:

• W. L. Woodfill: Musicians in English Society from Elizabeth I to Charles I, (Princeton, NJ, 1953)
• F. W. Galpin: Old English Instruments of Music (London, 1910)

Drum 

Drums (tambour, Trommel, tamburo, tambor, drome, dromme, drume), along with other percussion instruments were probably among the earliest instruments. There is evidence that the first membrane drums consisted of naturally hollow tree trunks covered at one or both ends with the skins of water animals, fish, or reptiles. Later, skins of hunted game and cattle were used. Drum bodies could be of wood, metal, earthenware, or bone. The head or heads could be fastened by glue, nails, or laced or lapped to the body of the drum. Sometimes there would be the hoop tensioned by rope. A gut snare could be added to the top or bottom head for a different effect.
 

click image for 210 kb wav 
or here for mp3 format

Numerous representations of drums in a variety of shapes and sizes appear in the art of Egypt, Southern Africa, Assyria, India, Sumaria, China, and Persia. The art of the Greeks and Romans show membrane drums. Small kettle drums (known as nakers, nakeres, nacara, nacaires) and tabors of Arabic or Saracenic origin came to Europe with the 13th century crusades. The bowls of these instruments were of wood or metal or clay, covered with a membrane. Nakers first appeared in England in the early 14th century. Chaucer mentioned them in his Knight's Tale. In 1304 Edward I's musicians included a Janino le Nakerer and in 1349 nacaires helped to celebrate the entry of Edward III into Calais. They were used in chamber music and for accompanying songs as well as in dance and processional music.

click image for 125 kb wav 
or here for the same in mp3

Rommelpost Drum 

The unusual rommelpost drum looks like a small naker but is not played by striking the head. Instead, the sound is generated by sliding the fingers back and forth on a slender wooden rod which is fastened to the center of the head inside the drum shell. Rosin is placed on the rod to help provide friction induced sounds which are amplified by the drum head.

Musica Antiqua's rommelpost drum was made in Brazil, and is similar
to ones used in medieval Europe.

Tambourine

The tambourine is a single headed frame drum consisting of a shallow ring of wood covered on one side with parchment. It usually had small metal discs (sometimes bells) arranged singly or in pairs hanging loosely in openings in the shell. The tambourine (timbrel, tambour de Basqui, Tamburin, Schellentrommel, cimbaletto, tamburino, panderete) is believed to be of Near Eastern origin. It was found in various forms in Assyria, Egypt, China, India, Peru, Greenland, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was used in prehistoric Britain and in Gaul, but its popularity increased with the advent of the Romans. As the Hebrew Tof, it was presumably the instrument used by Miriam and her maidens to celebrate Israel's triumph over the Egyptians. The tambourine is pictured in early art in funeral lamentations, in joyous processions and feasts, and in the hands of angels as well as rustics. It was popular throughout the Middle Ages in all parts of Europe, and was depicted at that time in a form very similar to today's tambourine.

Finger Cymbals 

click image for a short finger cymbal 
accompaniment (200kb wav) 
or here for same in mp3

Finger cymbals (crotales, zil) have been known since antiquity, perhaps from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. They are played in pairs, sometimes one in each hand as pictured, and often in one hand, one held on the thumb and the other on either the index or middle finger. Used to accompany dances, and sometimes held by the dancers themselves, they are still used chiefly in the Islamic cultures and on the Indian subcontinent. 

Musica Antiqua owns three drums by Williamson, a Capriol tabor, a large side drum, and a timbrel. The collection's four nakers have bowls formed by Dreeszen and laced by Hauser. Three sets of finger cymbals of various makers are used by the ensemble including a cast set by LP. 

Additional Resources:

• F. W. Galpin: Old English Instruments of Music (London, 1910)
• F. W. Galpin: Textbook of European Musical Instruments (London, 1937)
• H. Hickmann: Catalogue general des antiquites egyptiennes du Musee du Caire (Cairo, 1949)
• F. L. Harrison and J. Rimmer: European Musical Instruments(London, 1964)
• J. Blades: Percussion Instruments and their History (London, 1970)
• J. Blades and J. Montagu: Early Percussion Instruments from the Middle Ages to the Baroque (London, 1976)
• R. Donington: Music and its Instruments (London, 1982)