Reeds (part I)

It is now time to return to the early seventeenth century and pick up the story of the reeds. The late Renaissance is often characterized by the variety of its reed instruments, a variety made evident in Syntagma II of Praetorius. Of course, the full panoply of instruments was not available in all geographic areas or to those in all social strata. As students of performance practice, it should be our focus to determine the limitations of the use of these instruments as well as their possibilities. Fortunately, there have been some excellent modern studies that have addressed these issues in detail, combining archival and iconographic information with that provided by the treatises and the existing instruments themselves.


The seventeenth-century reed instrument with the longest history is certainly the shawm. One of the biggest problems in discussing it nowadays is terminology, particularly since the English names now used by players for the various members differ from the traditional English usage of the period; we will try to make the best of
a confusing situation. Praetorius illustrates six basic sizes, whose seven-finger notes are separated by fifths: from the top down these are a', d', g, c, F, and B♭. Although he treats them as a family, the nouns change after the first two (called Schalmeyen), the rest being called Pommern. As he explains, the distinction rests on the presence or absence of keys (Pommern having one or more, Schalmeyen having none); this habit reflects medieval French terminology, which distinguished between the original, keyless, soprano-pitched chalemie and the keyed bombarde that had been developed to play lower parts. (The etymological relationship of bombarde to Pommer is perhaps less obvious than that between chalemie and Schalmey—except, maybe, to a linguist.) About 1500, the French began to use the word hautbois to refer to the whole family; this word, of course, is the origin of the English term “hoboys” (likewise applied to the whole family, as was the term “waits” or “waits’ pipes,” as well as “shawms”). Praetorius’s three largest sizes were provided with four keys, like those of the “extended” forms of recorder discussed above; these he calls bassett- or tenor Pommer, bass Pommer, and grossbass Pommer. The smallest Pommer is the alt (with but one key); it and the discant Schalmey were, taken together, the “type form” instruments of the shawm family and those the most in use, in all countries and all periods. These two shawms were known in England as “tenor” and “treble,” respectively; the modern term “alto shawm” (a more-or-less direct translation of Praetorius’s alt Pommer) did not exist in English. Of the rest, the bass was probably the next most common, at least in the seventeenth century, while the exilent or gar klein discant Schalmey was the rarest of all.

Besides these standard sizes, Praetorius mentions three others: the nicolo (a tenor without extensions, having but one key), a discant in c', and an alt in f. The latter two are, in fact, hypothetical—ones he would like to see made, in order to make it easier to combine instruments of the whole family. He suggests using a choir of shawms to participate with other instruments and with voices in sacred motets and concertos. For this purpose he suggests that one omit the “screaming” discant Schalmey—probably the most characteristic voice of the family—and use only the Pommern, transposing the music down a fourth at the same time.75 Though Praetorius’s musical models were generally Italian, this use of a choir of shawms seems to have no precedent in Italy itself. There the appearance of shawms, small or large, in church was rare.76 Just how common the larger Pommern were within Germany is difficult to determine. They are specified occasionally (under the name bombardon) in the works of some German composers; for instance, Johann Hermann Schein’s “Hosiana, dem Sohn David” (1623) requires three—two bassett and one bass, as indicated by the ranges. Nearer the end of the century the bass is still being called for in some of the works of Dieterich Buxtehude. A grossbass Pommer is illustrated in the hands of the Nuremberg musician Nikol Rosenkron in 1679, and six years later St. Mary’s Church of Lübeck (where Buxtehude was organist) purchased a similar instrument. These latter were probably used to double continuo lines at sixteen-foot pitch. Praetorius’s suggested use of a low shawm choir lies somewhat outside the main tradition of the shawm band, which was based on the ability of the higher shawms to make their presence known in less-than-ideal acoustical surroundings—outdoors or competing with the noise of crowds. In its capacity as a band instrument, the shawm was alive and well in most European countries through most of the seventeenth century.

Its repertory, however, remains something of a mystery, being only infrequently written down. Some of the few examples that were are the result of the band’s participation in extraordinary events, such as coronations. Pictorial and other evidence makes it clear that sackbuts—certainly more portable than the larger Pommern — were generally used to play the lower interior parts, as well (one would presume) as the bass when no reed bass was available. A bass curtal (proto-bassoon; see below) seems to have substituted for the necessarily stationary bass Pommer when the band needed to be mobile. Another instrument that could find its way into the shawm band was the cornett, apparently as a second treble—a role found uncomfortable, however, by some modern cornettists who have tried it. Given these common mixtures of brass and reeds, Praetorius’s remark80 that “as to pitch, most shawms are a tone higher than cornetts and sackbuts” is rather puzzling—the more so since this statement is not borne out by his own evidence. (The scaled representations of instruments in his plates allow us to compare their dimensions with those of actual instruments; surviving shawms of the sizes he illustrates produce his nominal pitches at about a' = 460, as do the cornetts and sackbuts. Obviously one cannot expect this sort of analysis to be absolutely accurate; however, the margin of error has to be less than the whole tone mentioned by Praetorius.) Perhaps he means that shawms as a group generally transpose their music up a step (something he suggests they should do, just a few sentences later), while the cornetts and sackbuts usually play at pitch. If so, he has chosen an odd way to put it!

Mersenne’s shawm band is more traditional than Praetorius’s, both in function and makeup. He explains that shawms are the loudest instruments, except for trumpets; they are used for large assemblies, such as ballets (though violins have replaced them there), weddings, village festivals, and other public celebrations. His musical example, in six parts, calls for two trebles, two tenors (i.e., alt Pommern), sackbut, and bass. His specification of nominal pitches is neither clear nor consistent, but the interpretation with the fewest difficulties would put the treble (dessus) in c', seven fingers, and the tenor (taille—also called haute-contre) in f. The basse is clearly in (seven-fingers) F, with extensions down to C; this puts its basic fingering an octave below that of the taille, in contrast with the ninth between Praetorius’s corresponding bass and alt. This octave relationship is confirmed by a comparison of dimensions; those Mersenne supplies for the dessus and taille conform basically to Praetorius’s illustrations of the discant Schalmey and alt Pommer, while the length given by Mersenne for the basse is about 12 percent shorter than that of Praetorius’s bass Pommer—an appropriate difference in size for the interval of a whole tone. Thus the French shawm family must have been conceptually in “C and F,” just like the ensuing oboe/bassoon family but at a much higher pitch (about a' = 512, in effect).85 For the higher shawms the practical consequences for fingering are the same whether one thinks of the instruments as being in d' and g, transposing up a tone (as by Praetorius) or in c' and f (as by Mersenne), but for the bass the French system (with an instrument built up a tone from Praetorius’s) has a clear advantage.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the smaller shawms is the so-called pirouette (Mersenne’s term; Talbot calls it the “fliew”)—a small piece of turnery that surrounds the base of the reed and presents a flat surface to support the lips. Most extant shawms lack their original pirouettes (and, of course, reeds), but enough information survives from Mersenne, Talbot, and iconographic sources to allow accurate reconstruction. It is clear that early shawm reeds and pirouettes resembled closely those still in use on modern Catalan shawms. Here the pirouette provides support for the lips while in no way impeding their control of the short, wide reed.

Dynamic flexibility is not only feasible but indulged in to the fullest, though at an overall greater volume than with orchestral reeds. Despite the early efforts of Anthony Baines in making this point, scholars often still assume that the presence of a pirouette implies tonal inflexibility. Thus much importance has been ascribed to the lack of a pirouette in one of Mersenne’s illustrations of a treble shawm. This depiction has sometimes been seen as representing a milestone in the development of the expressive oboe, when it may be merely a schematic view with the pirouette left off for clarity. (The pirouette is, in any case, present in Mersenne’s other, more elegant and more accurate illustration of a treble shawm.)