Six Lectures on the Recorder

8/12/2019 Six Lectures on the Recorder

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TheFisher Collection

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Ontario HeritageFoundation


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LECTURES ON THE RECORDER


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FLUTE PLAYER FROM A GREEK VASE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM (p. xiv)


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SIX LECTURESON

THE RECORDERAND OTHER FLUTES

IN RELATION TO LITERATURE

BY

CHRISTOPHER WELCH, M.A. OXON.

HENRY FROWDEOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE1911


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PREFACESHOULD this book fall into the hands of one who looks upon

reading as a pastime, or wishes to get information quickly andwithout trouble, the author hopes that, having read this sen-tence, he will put the volume down. No attempt has beenmade to render its pages attractive by imparting to them thegraces of style, or pleasant by excluding from them what is dry,dull, and heavy. They abound in notes, digressions, cross-references, and descriptions often tedious and sometimesirrelevant ; in short, they are not intended to either amuse orteach, but to stimulate inquiry ; they are addressed to thestudious in the hope that what is advanced in them may beweighed by men of judgement ; the statements brought forwardverified, or disproved ; the opinions expressed confirmed, orrejected.The work is made up out of materials got together for myown gratification. It owes its form, that of Lectures and,

indeed, its existence to the circumstance that some years agoI was invited to read a Paper before the Musical Association.On considering what subject I should select in response to thecompliment, it occurred to me that it might interest the Mem-bers if I were to clear away the obscurity and uncertainty inwhich, at that time, the recorder was enveloped ; accordingly,I put into the form of a Paper some notes I had by me on theconstruction and history of that instrument. After my Paperhad been read and printed in the Proceedings of the Association,I was asked from time to time to bring out what I had writtenin a separate publication, so as to make it accessible to thosewho did not possess the volume in which it appeared. ThePaper, however, was not long enough to form a book, so that,in complying with the request, I had to consider how to fill a


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vi PREFACEvolume, and I decided to do so by going further into the literaryaspect of the flute, and treating of the allusions made to theinstrument by our two greatest poets, Shakespeare and Milton.Whilst commenting on the scene in which Hamlet takes therecorder in his hands and invites his fellow-student to play onit, a subject to which I have devoted a separate Lecture, I havepointed out that Shakespeare intended a band of recorder-players, consisting of at least four performers, to come uponthe stage. When Hamlet was first played, owing, it has beensupposed, to the poor equipment of the theatre in Shakespeare'stime, only one Player made his appearance. Even now, thenumber is usually restricted to two. In the present day, whenneither trouble nor expense are spared in mounting the playsof the greatest of our dramatists, it would be a graceful compli-ment to the art of music, an art to which the drama is deeplyindebted, if Shakespeare's design were carried out. Also, whendiscussing the scene, I have drawn attention to an innovationwhich, if it has not already been abandoned, it is to be hopedwill soon become a thing of the past. I allude to the treatmentsometimes meted out by Hamlet to the recorder he has askedto see and the Players he has summoned to his presence. Anactor who, having borrowed the flute with which to administerthe well-known reproof, takes upon himself to order the Playersoff the stage, and, when they are gone, breaks in pieces theinstrument lent to him, and throws the fragments scornfullyaway, cannot be surprised if neither musicians in general, norflute-players in particular, should feel flattered.When dealing with Shakespeare, I am traversing a field agreat part of which has been already more than once trodden,but on turning to Milton, I am on virgin ground. Here adisappointment awaits us. It may be that our anticipationsare unduly raised, but one interested in music cannot helpexpecting that a poet who was a musician, the son of a musi-cian, and, at the same time, a deeply read scholar would beaccuracy itself in his references to musicians and musicalinstruments, and, more particularly, that he would detect and


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PREFACE viiavoid a grave error, into which pastoral poets of his time hadfallen, relating to the instrument which forms the keystoneof pastoral poetry the syrinx. But though the hopes thusraised are not destined to be gratified, I am able to say that Ihave had to notice but one occasion on which this fearlessgenius, in his meteor-like flights, has gone beyond the limits ofhis art, that being in the representation of a musician playingon two instruments at once, a situation which no pencil couldportray, no imagination realize.

In the last of my Lectures, I have left the new for the oldworld, and attempted to throw light on an obscure subject, theuse of the flute in the rite of wailing. I have prefaced theinquiry with a brief account of the chief Temple ceremony ofthe Greeks and Romans, a preliminary which enabled me toshow that the importance attached to the flute in the ritual ofthe Mythological system of religion was due to the power ofacting on spirits the instrument was thought to possess. Oncoming to my problem why music was employed in wailingI was hampered by not being able to find a work to which Icould refer my readers for an explanation of the original objectof the rite, the practice having come to be so universally re-garded as the outpouring of grief elaborated into a ceremonialform that its first purpose was overlooked. I was thereforeobliged to have recourse to a digression in which to point outthat the primary aim of the institution was to bring the dead tolife by inducing the spirit to re-enter the body.On considering the ululatus, or wailing cry, which I regardas a vestige of primordial singing, I found myself face to facewith a more formidable difficulty, the want of a satisfactoryelucidation of the nature and origin of music. The old ideathat musical sounds, gaining access to the interior of the bodythrough the openings of the ears, made their way until theycame to the spirit, which they ' touched ', ' moved ', ' stirred ',and ' thrilled ', though it retains itsplace in our ordinarylanguage,has long been discarded as a belief. Herbert Spencer's hypo-thesis that music originated in emotional speech fails to account


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x PREFACEwithout the aid of speech, but could stir psychic depths whichwords are powerless to reach. ' As Herbert Spencer remarks,'writes Darwin in his Descent of Man,

' music arouses dormantsentiments of which we had not conceived possibility, and donot know the meaning ; or, as Richter says, tells of things wehave not seen and shall not know.' Judged by such views, themore thoroughly he could arouse the ' dormant sentiments ',the greater would be the musician ; the truer the tale it couldunfold ' of things we have not seen and shall not know ', themore real would be the music ; the more deeply affected he wasat what is unfolded, the more musical would be the organizationof the listener. Conversely, music which appeals to the intel-lect, not to the emotions to the head, not to the heart wouldbe artificial.

It is needless to say that such questions as those here raisedcannot be satisfactorily examined in a paragraph of a preface,or adequately treated in a passing footnote ; their investiga-tion requires a separate essay. Such an essay would carry mefar beyond the scope of these Lectures ; I can only express ahope that the subject may attract the attention of some com-petent inquirer who will bestow upon it the attention it deserves.

It remains for me to avail myself of a custom now generallyadopted and express my obligation to at least some of those towhom I am personally indebted for so kindly gratifying mycuriosity. Sir Michael Costa, Sir Charles Newton, M. GustaveChouquet, Dr. Alexander S. Murray, and Dr. Tyndall are, alas no longer with us, but I am still able to thank Dr. Cecil H.Smith, Mr. Frederick H. Marshall and Mr. W. Barclay Squire,of the British Museum, Mr. Lehfeldt, of the South KensingtonMuseum, M. Victor Charles Mahillon, Curator of the Instru-mental Museum of the Conservatoire of Brussels, Mr. HenryBalfour, Curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Dr. EdwardBarnet Tylor, Professor of Anthropology in the University ofOxford, Mr. Edward Williams Byron Nicholson, Bodley'sLibrarian, Dr. Robert Henry Codrington, Prebendary of Chi-chester, Mr. Herbert Paul Richards, of Wadham College,


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PREFACE xiOxford, Mr. Percy Lubbock, of Magdalene College, Cambridge,and, above all, my oldest friend, Mr. B. Bickley Rogers. Iregret that I have not been able to refer to the work on OldEnglish Instruments of Music by the Rev. P. W. Galpin. Theomission is not due to a want of appreciation of Mr. Galpin 'smasterly contribution to the literature of music, but is owingto these Lectures having been in type before that handsomevolume appeared.RICHMOND-ON-THAMES,

January, 1911.


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CONTENTSLECTURE I

LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE RECORDERUncertainties of Lexicographers and Commentators, 1. Misprints in

Hamlet, 4. Classification of Flutes, 6. Quotations from old Writers, 7. TheFlute in Chaucer, 13. Description of the Recorder, 23. Henry VIII and theRecorder, 26. The Recorder in Agricola, Praetorius, and Mersenne, 39. TheFlageolet, 47. Puritan Attack on the Flute, '58. Books of Instruction forthe Flageolet and the Recorder, 60. The Recorder changes its Name, 77.Decay and Extinction of the Recorder, 85. Errors of Sir John Hawkins,Dr. Burney, Mr. William Chappell, and Carl Engel, 103.

LECTURE IITONE AND EFFECT OF THE RECORDER

Tendency of Instruments to become louder, 128. Sweetness and Solemnityof Recorders, 128. Recorders used for Angelic Music, 132. Extraordinaryeffect of Recorders on Pepys, 135. Handel's use of the Flute, 140. Handel'sFlauto Piccolo, 149. The Obbligato to ' ruddier than the Cherry ', 154.

LECTURE IIIHAMLET AND THE RECORDER

Remarks on the Recorder Scene, 157. Who were the Recorder-Players ?161. The Recorder Scene not adequately represented, 161. A Flute-Player'sview of the Recorder Scene, 163. An objectionable Practice of some Hamlets,168. The original Text of the Recorder Scene, 169. ' To withdraw with you,'172. ' I know no touch of it,' 174. ' Govern these Ventages,' 175. ' Give itBreath with your Mouth,' 176. ' It will discourse most eloquent Music,' 178.' Look you, these are the stops,' 179. ' You would pluck out the heart of myMystery,' 181. ' Though you can fret me,' 182.


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvFIG. PAGE30. Bird Flageolet, from The Bird Fancyer's Delight ... 5631. An Example of the Dot Notation for the Flageolet . . 5732. Recorder Quartet Party, from the Title-page of Hudgebut'sThesaurus 7033. Title-page of Hudgebut's Thesaurus Musicus . . . .7234 Frontispiece of The Genteel Companion - . . . . . 7435. Title-page of The Genteel Companion , . . ; . .. . . . 7536. Title-page of The Compleat Flute-Master . . . . .7637. Frontispiece of Directions for Playing on the Flute . . . 7838. Title-page of Directions for Playing on the Flute .. . .7939. Frontispiece of The Complete Flute Master . . -.. . 8040. Title-page of The Complete Flute Master . . . . .8141. Frontispiece of Compleat Instructions for the Common Flute . . 8242. Title-page of Compleat Instructions for the Common Flute . . 8343. Transverse Flute in combination with Strings .... 8844. Pipes of Sourdeline showing Closed Keys ..... 8945 Early One-keyed Flutes . . / . . . . . . . ,9046. Flute of Quantz, with Separate Keys for D| and Efr . . 9247. Frontispiece to Granom's Tutor .... . , . . 9348. The four closed Keys from the Specification of Potter's Patent 9449. Frontispiece of Fenturn's Tutor for the German Flute . . 9950. Tacet and Florio's Flute, with Table of Fingering of Notes affected

by the Keys, from Fenturn's Tutor ... f . . . 10151. Eight-keyed Lip Flute ......... ... ,.10252. Improved Bass Fipple Flute ... . . . . ...'.' 10253. Portrait of a Gentleman playing the Flute. From Hawkins's

History of Music .11454. Eunuch Flute, after Mersenne . . , . . . .' ..11755. Modern Eunuch Flute . . . . . . . . . 11756. Nyastaranga-player . . . . . . . . . . .11957. Chinese Ti-tzu, shown in the Loan Collection of 1885 . . 12058. Siamese Klui, Back and Front view ' . 12159. Fipple Flute in the South Kensington Museum . . . 12460. The Chester Flutes * . ,. .16461. Recorder belonging to Messrs. Rudall, Carte & Co. . . . 16562. How the Recorder would be handed to Hamlet - . . . 16763. How Hamlet would take the Recorder 16764. Lamprey .18565. Piece's Tibia 19366. labourer with his Pipe ........ 19467. Cherula and Toontoona . . . . ... ... .19568. Egyptian Barge with Composite Sail, after Halliwell ; . 20669. Five Members of the Hautboy Family, after Praetorius .' . 22270. Swiss Pipes, after Agricola . . 23271. Transverse Flutes, after Praetorius . 233


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xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPIG. PAGE72. Fifes and Drum, after Praetorius 23373. Fife, after Mersenne 23574. Fifes from the Encyclopaedia 23675. Fife of Wood 23776. Fife of Metal 23777. Military Flutes from Potter's Drum, Flute, and Bugle Duty Tutor 23878. Knight's Wry-necked Fife 24379. Mr. Halliwell's Wry-necked Fife 24480. Carl Engel's Wry-necked Fife . . . . . .24581. Fragments of an Ancient Wind Instrument .... 24882. Ivory Fragment with Supposed Mouth-hole 24983. Modern Syrinx 26484. Splints on the ancient Syrinx, after Bartholinus . . . 26985. Roumanian Syrinx 27086. Roumanian Open-end Flute 27187. Embouchure of Roumanian Flute ...... 27288. Tyndall's Straw-Flute 27489. Straw-Flute with two Finger-holes, after Mersenne . . . 27590. Straw-Flute with three Finger-holes, after Mersenne . . . 27591. Syrinx, from a Bronze representing Aphrodite adjusting her sandal 30392. Flute-player escorting a Victim to the Temple Sacrifice . . 30993. Roman Sacrifice 31094. Sacrificial Flute-player with an Accompanyist . . . .31095. Greek Sacrifice 31096. Supposed Scabellum from a Marble Altar, after Bartholinus . 32197. Ocarina 34498. Improved Ocarina ......... 34499. Side-blown Trumpet, after Engel 350

100. Hindoo Hornpipe 350101. Modern Greek Hornpipe 351102. The Welsh Hornpipe, or Pibcorn . . . . .351103. Aztec Flute, after Mahillon 353104. Russian Bassoon 353105. Hornpipe with Mouth Showing Supposed Vestige of Upper Jaw 353106. Flute-player at a Wailing 360107. Flute-player at a Roman Wailing '. 360108. Funeral Instruments of the Trumpet Family . . . .387109. Flutes in a Roman Funeral Procession 387110. Wailing round a Greek Funeral Car . . . . . . 389111. Wailing at a Greek Funeral 389112. The Spirit accompanying the Funeral in the form of a Bird

(Etruscan) 390


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LECTURE ILITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE RECORDERUncertainties of Lexicographers and Commentators, 1. Misprints in Hamlet,

4. Classification of Flutes, 6. Quotations from old Writers, 7. The Flutein Chaucer, 13. Description of the Recorder, 23. Henry VIII and the Recorder,26. The Recorder in Agricola, Praetorius, and Mersenne, 39. The Flageolet,47. Puritan Attack on the Flute, 58. Books of Instruction for the Flageoletand the Recorder, 60. The Recorder changes its Name, 77. Decay andExtinction of the Recorder, 85. Errors of Sir John Hawkins, Dr. Burney,Mr. William Chappell, and Carl Engel, 103.WHAT was a recorder ? How many different answers have been

given to the question.An Englishman in search of a reply would turn, as a matter ofcourse, first of all to Johnson's Dictionary, where he would findthat the cautious lexicographer, keeping on safe ground, pro-nounces a recorder to be * a kind of flute '. But if the inquirer,desirous of testing the accuracy of the Doctor's statement, wereto consult Webster, a more modern authority, he would be told thata recorder was ' a kind of flageolet ', an explanation altered in asubsequent edition into ' an instrument resembling the flageolet '.Still more inexact is the description given in a later work, theCentury Dictionary, 1889 : a recorder is there said to be 'a musicalinstrument of the flageolet family, having a long tube with sevenholes and a mouthpiece. In some cases an eighth, covered withgold-beaters' skin, appears near the mouthpiece, apparently toinfluence the quality of the tone '.Those who have edited books in which the recorder is mentionedhave- naturally been desirous of giving their readers an idea of the

instrument ; but what uncertainty and contradiction we find intheir statements For instance, on April 8, 1668, Mr. SamuelPepys paid a visit to his flutemaker, Drumbleby, ' and did talk,'he says, c a great deal about pipes ; and did buy a recorder, whichI do intend to learn to play on, the sound of it being, of all soundsin the world, most pleasing to me.' Now in Bright's Pepys (1875)we are informed that ' a recorder was a large flute, blown through

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2 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERa mouthpiece, like a clarionet in the present day ' ; but in the stillmore elaborate edition of the Diary lately brought out by Mr. Wheat-ley, a recorder is stated to be ' a reed instrument, but in the sidenear the mouthpiece there was a hole covered with a piece of bladder,which modified the quality of the sound '.When Queen Elizabeth visited Kenilworth, in 1575, there awaitedher a magnificent reception. Even gods and goddesses vied witheach other in hailing her with tokens of joy. A chronicler, who goesinto minute details of the preparations which were made for theoccasion, states that there were erected at the sides of the roadby which she would pass, as she approached the castle, seven pairsof posts. On the first pair were ' too cumly square wyre cagez 'containing birds, as gifts to Her Majesty from Sylvanus the godof ' Foul ' ; on the second, ' too great sylver'd bollz ' filled withfruit, as gifts from Pomona, the goddess of * Frutez ' ; on thethird pair, two similar bowls in which was corn as the gift of Ceres.On the fourth, fifth, and sixth pairs were displayed grapes and wine,fish, and arms and armour, as offerings from Bacchus, Neptune,and Mars respectively. * On the seaventh posts, the last and nexttoo the Castl,' the chronicler states, * wear thear pight [i. e. placed]too saer Bay braunchez of a four foot hy, adourned on all sideswith lutes, viollz, shallmz, cornets, flutes, recorders, and harpes,az prezents of Phoebus, the god of Muzik for rejoycing the mind,and of phizik for health to the body.'

I ought to mention that musical instruments were not merelydisplayed in dumb show ; there was in store for the royal guesta ' delicate harmony ' of a kind of which I shall have more to saya concert of flutes. * At the eend of the Bridge,' continues thechronicler, ' and entree of the gate, waz her Highnes received witha fresh delicate armony of flutz in perfourmauns of Phoebus prezents/She had previously been greeted with ' a delectable harmony ofhautboiz, shalmz, cornets and such other looud muzik ' after havingbeen saluted by trumpeters with ' a tune of welcum : which, besydethe nobl noyz, was so mooch the more pleazaunt too behold, becauztheez trumpetoourz, being sixe in number, wear every one aneight foot hye, in due proportion of parson besyde, all in longgarments of sylk suitabl, each with his silvery trumpet of a fivefoot long, formed taper wyse, and straight from the upper partuntoo the neather eend, whear the diameter was a 16 inches over,and yet so tempered by art, that being very eazy too the blast,they cast foorth no greater noyz, nor a more unpleazaunt soound


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4 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERThe information which Mr. Nichols gives his readers is that recorders1 were wind instruments somewhat resembling flutes, or ratherclarionets ; for by the description which is given of one by LordBacon, in the second century of his Sylva Sylvarum, at the159th and 160th experiments, it may be ascertained that the instru-ment was blown at one end. It appears from the same authoritythat it consisted of a tube with stops or wind holes, and a fipple,or mouthpiece ; the lower end open, like flageolets of the presenttime. The word fipple , used by Bacon for mouthpiece, signifiesliterally a stopper, from the Latin fibuli,1 whence it may be arguedthat the upper end of the recorder terminated in a cap, from whenceissued the pipe that conveyed the breath throughout the wholeinstrument '.

MISPRINTS IN HAMLETIt is not, however, until we look into Shakespeare that we realize

the density of the clouds which envelop the recorder and becomefully alive to the need there is of dispelling the darkness in whichthe instrument is shrouded. On none of the plays of the greatdramatist has so much been written as on Hamlet ; of all the scenesin that much-debated tragedy few have attracted more attentionor given commentators more trouble than the recorder scene. Inthe collection of the plays published by Shakespeare's friends JohnHeminge and Henry Condell, so well known as the folio of 1623,the passage 'govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb %appears as 'govern these ventiges with your finger and thumb'.Which is right fingers and thumb, or finger and thumb ? Were thereseveral holes for the fingers on the recorder, as on the flute, or wasthe instrument constructed with two holes only, a hole for a fingerand a hole for a thumb, having thus one hole less than the pipeplayed with the tabour, which has three holes two for the fingersand one for the thumb ? So vague was the information at thecommand of commentators that they have never settled the matter,there being modern editions of Shakespeare, including that ofMr. Dyce, who has taken great pains with the text, in which westill read ' finger and thumb '.But a more knotty question awaited the commentators. Hamleta tube, constructs a fipple out of the piece of wood above the mouth by re-moving a slice to form the flue, he designates the fipple, which, like the reedof the May horn, makes the tube yield sound, the fib of the instrument. Thuswe have fipple, fib, pib, pipe.1

Obviously a misprint of fibula.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 5was first published separate from the other plays ; it appeared ina series of editions of a quarto size. The first quarto, which cameout in 1603, is a bastard version of the tragedy ; it is generallyregarded as a surreptitious issue, based either on recollection or onnotes taken during the representation. It was followed in the nextyear, 1604, by a second quarto * according to the true and perfectcoppie ' of the play. In the spurious edition, the quarto of 1603,there is no mention of the fingers and thumb, the passage reading* 'Tis but stopping of these holes ' ; but in the quarto of 1604, thefirst edition of the true copy, we read govern these ventages, notwith your fingers and thumb, but with your fingers and ' the umber '.There was, then, no hole on the recorder for the thumb, the ventagesbeing closed by the fingers with the assistance of the umber. Whatwas the umber ? Here was a problem In the absence of fact tofall back upon, fancy was ready with an answer : the umber, shewliispered, was a key ; whereupon the commentators proceeded toexercise their acumen and to display their learning as follows :

;

The umber,' says Mr. Steevens, ' may probably be the ancientname for that piece of movable brass at the end of a flute whichis either raised or depressed with the finger. The word umber isused by Stowe, the chronicler, who, describing a single combatbetween two knights, says : He brast up his umber three times.Here the umber means the visor of the helmet. So, in Spenser'sFairy Queene, Book III, c. i, st. 42 :

But the brave maid would not disarmed be,But only vented up her umbriere,And so did let her goodly visage to appere.Again, Book IV, c. iv :

And therewith smote him on his umbriere.Again, in the second book of Lidgate on the Trojan War, 1513 :

Through the umber into Troylus' face.'Toilet, another well-known commentator, writes thus : ' Ifa recorder had a brass key like the German flute, we are to follow the

reading of the quarto ; for then the thumb is not concerned in thegovernment of the ventages or stops. If a recorder was like alabourer's pipe, which has no brass key, but has a stop for thethumb, we are to read, Govern these ventages with your fingerand thumb. In Cotgrave's Dictionary, ombre, ombraire, ombriere,and ombrelle are all from the Latin umbra and signify a shadow, anumbrella, anything that shades or hides the face of the sun ; and


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6 LECTURES ON THE RECORDER.hence they have been applied to anything that hides or coversanother ; as, for example, they may have been applied to the brasskey that covers the hole in the German flute.'

1

I feel tempted to give other quotations, but, not to be wearisome,I will pass on, only adding that I have met with but one writer whoseideas on the subject of the recorder are clear and correct.2 Thechief object of this Lecture is to show how pardonable are thewanderings of which I have given samples, inasmuch as the author-ities on musical matters to whom laymen would naturally turnfor guidance, have themselves gone hopelessly astray. In carryingout my design, I shall first classify flutes in a way suitable for mypurpose, then quote passages from old writers in which the recorderis mentioned, next give a brief historical account of the instrument,and finally point out and trace to their source the errors into whichSir John Hawkins, Dr. Burney, Mr. William Chappell and CarlEngel have fallen.

CLASSIFICATION OF FLUTES' Flute ' was formerly a generic term like the Greek avXos and

the English 'pipe'. It was applicable to most, if not to all, ofthe members of the wood-wind, including those blown with a reed ;a sense in which we still use it when we speak of the May flute,the Straw flute, the Eunuch flute, or the flutes of the ancients.In the present day, however, the word is usually restricted toinstruments the sound of which is produced by the impact of a jetof air on a cutting edge.

I shall divide flutes, thus defined, into three classes, basing myclassification on the way in which the flue, throat, or fissure, fromwhich the jet issues, is formed.In the first, it is formed by the nostril of the performer ; in the

second, by the muscular action of the lips ; in the third, by insertinginto the instrument itself a plug, or a plate, which partially blocks,and so narrows, the tube.I shall call members of the first class nostril or nose flutes ; of thesecond, lipflutes ; of the third, flppleflutes, fipple being the technicalname of the plug by which the tube is reduced in size.The nostril or nose flute does not come within the scope of our

1 ' The umber ' is, beyond all doubt, nothing but a misprint of ' thumb 'See below, p. 170, note 3.8 Mr. Albert Way, in a note on the word in his invaluable edition of the

Promptorium Parvulorum, published by the Camden Society (1843-65).


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 7inquiry. It is in use chiefly, but not exclusively, in the islands ofthe Pacific Ocean ; in Europe it is only to be found in museumsand in the cabinets of collectors.1With the lip or mouth flute we are all familiar, for a member of the

family, the transverse or German flute, with its diminutives thepiccolo and the fife, is in daily use amongst us. To this class belongsthe Pan flute, as well as the Egyptian nay.The fipple flute, with which this Lecture will chiefly deal, is nowwellnigh extinct ; not that the construction of sound producers onits principle has ceased ; far from it, they are made in thousands,from the Liliputian whistle an inch long up to its Brobdingnagiandescendant, the organ-pipe, thirty-two feet high. But, if we exceptthe so-called flageolets which decorate our shop windows, the fippleflute only survives as a finger-holed instrument in actual use in thelittle six-holed pipe so often heard in the streets of London, which,though known in this country by the contemptuous appellationof the penny whistle, still bears in France the name which ourGallic neighbours formerly assigned to its once popular predecessor,' The English Flute.'

QUOTATIONS FROM OLD WRITERSHaving now explained the meaning I attach to the expressions

lip flute and fipple flute, terms which I shall often use in this Lecture,I will proceed to cite passages from old writers in which mentionis made of the recorder.

I have already given a quotation in which the recorder and theflute are named together, the presents offered to Queen Elizabeth,as she approached Kenilworth in 1575, comprising both recorders andflutes. They are also both mentioned in the list of instruments forwhich John Milton, the great poet's father, is credited by Lane withwriting music.2 In Drayton's Polyolbion (1613-22) we find therecorder associated not only with the flute but with the fife, therebeing amongst the instruments played by the English in theirmusical contest with the Welsh, recorders, flutes, and fifes ; whilst

1 The nose flute is described in Ellis's Polynesian Researches, chap, viii ; inHawkesworth's Voyages, Vol. II, p. 205 ; in a paper entitled 'Notes on theAsiatic Relations of Polynesian Culture', published in the Journal of theAnthropological Institute, May, 1882, and in M. Victor Mahillon's Cataloguedu Musee Instrumental du Conservatoire de Musique de Bruxelles, secondedition, pp. 176, 408. A general account of the instrument is given in thewriter's History of the Boehm Flute, third edition, pp. 257 to 267.

2 See below, p. 254, note 1.


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8 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERthe labourer's pipe, an instrument of the fipple flute family, is alsoincluded :

So were there some again, in this their learned strife,Loud instruments that loved, the cornet and the fife,The Hoboy, sagbut deep, recorder and the flute :Even from the shrillest shawm unto the cornamute.Some blow the bagpipe up, that plays the country round,The Taber and the Pipe some take delight to sound.Running back rather more than a century, we come to Hawes's

Passetyme of Pleasure, a ' boke ' made in the twenty-first year ofthe reign of Henry VII (1506).1 In this poem there is an allusionto the characteristic for which the recorder was so celebrated, itssweetness :

There sat dame Musyke with all her mynstracy ;As tabours, trumpettes, with pipes melodious,Sakbuttes, organs, and the recorder swetely,Harpes, lutes, and crouddes ryght delycyous ;Cymphans, doussemers, wyth clavicimbales glorious.Rebeckes, clavycordes, eche in theyr degre,Did sytte aboute theyr ladyes mageste.

Possibly of about the same period as The Pastime of Pleasure isa passage with which, as it has been so often repeated, most musi-cians are familiar. I allude to the lines on the recorder from the' Proverbis in the garet at the New lodge in the parke of lekingfelde ',quoted by Mr. William Chappell in his Popular Music of the OldenTime. These so-called proverbs are said to have been written onthe walls of an upper room in the Manor House of Leckingfield(a Yorkshire residence which belonged to the Percy family) in thereign of Henry VII. And here I must commence my ungracioustask of pointing out mistakes. It will be recollected that the secondline of the proverb devoted to the recorder is stated to run thus :* Manifold fingering and stops bringeth high notes from its cleartones.' Mr. Chappell placed the word ' notes ' in a parenthesis,2it having been interpolated to make sense, ' bringeth high from its

1 Stephen Hawes studied at Oxford, then travelled on the continent, andafterwards became groom of the chamber to Henry VII. On the queen'sdeath, in 1502, he received four yards of black cloth for mourning, but hedoes not appear to have received any cloth when the king died, in 1509, fromwhich it is inferred that he no longer held the appointment. The Pastime ofPleasure has been reprinted by the Percy Society (Vol. XVIII). The passagequoted above occurs in the sixteenth chapter of the poem.

2 See below, p. 122.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 9tones ' being unintelligible. The line so printed has passed intoother books, until the parenthesis has been dropped, so that thereader is not aware that the word ' notes ' did not originally formpart of the text. Now, on referring to the manuscript 1 from whichthe proverbs are taken, we find neither ' high ', * notes ', nor ' tones ',the line having been misinterpreted in the following way :The word ' high ' was formerly often spelt ' hy '. It is so speltin a proverb preceding that which we are considering :A Shawme makithe a sweete sounde for he tunithe Basse,

It mountithe not to hy, but kepithe rule and space.2But, on looking at the * hy ' in the proverb relating to the recorder,we see a line drawn horizontally over the ' y '. This is an indicationthat the letter 'm ' is omitted, ' hy ' so written being an abbreviation,a common one, of the word ' him ', which was once spelt ' hym ' ;the whole proverb reading thus :The recorder of his kynde the meane 3 dothe desyre,Manyfolde fyngerynge and stoppes bryngithe hy from [him from

i. e. from him] his tunes clere.Who so lyst to handill an instrument so goodeMust se in his many fingeryne y* he kepe tyme, stop and moode.1 Royal MS. 18, D. II, British Museum.2 The two remaining lines of this proverb are of interest, inasmuch as they

seein to contain an allusion to the tendency of the shawm to fly into the twelfthabove the note fingered, a peculiarity of which Denner availed himself in theconstruction of the clarinet :

Yet yf it be blowne with a to vehement wynde,It makithe it to misgoverne out his kynde.3 The proverb refers to a member of the recorder family, either the alto orthe tenor recorder, when it was played as a solo instrument. The alto viol was

called the mean ; amongst the strings of the viol there were two means, thesecond string being known as the small, the third as the great, mean. Therecorder named in the proverb is said of its kind to desire the mean, that is,to take the mean part when played in a concert of recorders. In singing, weare 1 old, the mean might be either the alto or the tenor part, but in the follow-ing verses (quoted in Collier's Annals of the Stage, Vol. I, p. 70) by JohnHeywood, a musician of the household of Henry VIII, the mean is confined tothe alto, there termed the counter :

Longe have I bene a singinge man,And sondrie partes ofte I have songe,Yit one parte since I first beganI cold nor can sing, olde or yonge ;The meane, I meane, which parte showthe wellAbove all partes most to excell.


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10 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERWe will now pass to an earlier enumeration of musical instruments ,

that found in the Squyr of Lowe Degre.1 The date of this romance,The base and treble are extremes,The tenor standethe sturdilie,The counter reignethe then me semes;The meane must make our melodie.

This is the meane, who meanthe it well,The parte of partes that doth excell.Of all our partes, if any Jarre,Blame not the meane being songe trewe ;The meane must make, it maye not marre ;Lackinge the meane our mirthe adewe ;Thus showthe the meane not meanlie well,

Yet doth the meane in this excell.Marke well the mannour of the meane,And therebie tyme and tune your songe ;Unto the meane where all partes leane,

All partes are kepte from singinge wrong.Though singinge men take tnis not well,Yet doth the mean in this excell.The meane in compasse is so largeThat everye parte must joyne thereto ;It hath an ooer in everie barge,To saye, to singe, to thinke, to do.Of all these partes no parte doth wellWithout the meane, which dothe excell.To highe, to lowe, to loude, to softeTo fewe, to manie at a parte aloneThe meane is far melodious [ofte]Then other partes lackinge that one :Wherebie the meane comparethe wellAmong all partes most to excell.The meane in losse, the meane in gaine,In wealthe or in adversitie ;The meane in healthe, the meane in paine,The meane meanethe alwaies equitie.The meane thus ment may meane full wellOf other partes most to excell.To me and myne with all the reste,Good Lorde, graunte grace, with heartie voiceTo singe the meane that meanethe best,

All other partes in the beste for to rejoyce :Which meane in meaninge meanethe well,The meane of meanes that doth excell.Finis Mr. Haywoode.

1Ritson's Metrical Romances.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 11like that of the proverbs at Leckingfield, is conjectural ; but 1475,ten years before the accession of Henry VII, has been named asprobable : There was myrth and melodyWith harp, getron and sautry,With rote, ribible and clokarde,With pypes, organs and bumbarde,With other mynstrelles them amonge,With sytolphe and with sautry songe,With fydle, recorde, and dowcemere,With trompette and with claryon clere,With dulcet pipes of many cordes.1

I must not omit to notice that ' recorder ' occurs in a work whereits presence is an indication that the word was not confined toEngland in the fifteenth century, but was known also in Scotland ;in the Buke of the Howlate, maid be Holland, not only is ' recorder rto be found, but, possibly, though this is very doubtful, c fife '.Mention is also made of a wind instrument very rarely named, thelilt-pipe. Good reasons have been adduced for the belief thatThe, Houlate was written not far from 1450, so that it is abouta quarter of a century earlier than The Squire of Low Degree?

All thus our ladye they lofe, with liking and list,3Menstralis and musicians mo than I mene 4 may,The psaltery, the citholis,5 the soft cytharist,6The croude, and the monycordis, the gythornis 7 gay,The rote, and the recordour, the ribup,8 the rist,9The trump, and the taburn,10 the tympane but tray ;1 Of many cordes, that is, of many accords, or sweet sounds.2 ' The Houlate ' (Anglice, the Owl) was first printed in Pinkerton's ScottishPoems (Vol. Ill, p. 179), afterwards by Lang, and again by the Hunterian

Club. In 1893 an edition of the text (Holland's Buke of the Houlate, by ArthurDie bier) was published at Leipsic, in which two MSS., one written in the earlypart: of the sixteenth century by John Asloan, the other in 1568 by GeorgeBannatyne, are carefully collated. Certain differences noted by Diebler aregivon below.3 Pinkerton, 'lift.'

4 ' Mene ' i. e. ' mention.'5 Bannatyne MS., ' cytholis ' ; Asloan MS., ' sytholis.'6 Bannatyne MS., ' cytharist ' ; Asloan MS., ' sytharist ' ; Pinkerton,

' atherift.'7 Asloan MS., 'gyttyrnis.'g Pinkerton, ' ribus ' ; Lang, * ribupe.'9 Pinkerton, 'rift.'10 Asloan MS., ' the trumpe and the talburn.'


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12 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERThe lilt pype and the lute, the cithill l in fist,The dulsate,2 and the dulsacordis, the schalm 3 of assay ;The amyable organis usit full oft,Clarions 4 loude knellis,Portativis 5 and bellis,Cymbaclanis 6 in the cellisThat soundis so soft.7

If we turn from Scotland to the opposite extremity of Britain,Cornwall, there too we meet with ' recorder '. The word occursin a Miracle Play in the Cornish language. The date of the Playis uncertain, but Mr. Norris, by whom it has been edited, is of opinionthat it is not much, if any, older than the fifteenth century ;1 certainly,' he writes, ' it cannot be assigned to a period earlier thanthe fourteenth century ' : REX DD

whethoug menstrels ha tabourstrey-hans harpes ha trompours

cythol crowd fylh ha savtrypsalmus gyttrens ha nakrysorgans in weth cymbalys

recordys ha symphony.81 AsloanMS., ' fydill,' a reading undoubtedly preferable to ' cythiP, that

of the Bannatyne MS., the ' cytholis ' having been already mentioned in thethird line. It can certainly be said of the fiddle that it is played in the fist,or closed hand. Pinkerton, however, gives, instead of ' in fist ', ' and fift ' ;so that if he is correct the fife is here named.

2 Asloan MS., ' dulset.' 3 Pinkerton, ' schalin.'4 Asloan MS.,

'

claryonis'

; Pinkerton,' clarionis.'

5 Pinkerton, * portatibus ' ; Asloan MS., ' portatiuis ' ; as printed for theHunterian Club, ' portatisis.'6 Pinkerton, * cymbaellonis ' ; Asloan MS., ' cymbaclanis ' ; in the Banna-

tyne MS., apparently altered into ' cymbaclasnis '. Two forms of mediaevalcymbalo, one consisting of plates of metal, the other of small bells fastenedtogether are described and figured by Engel (Catalogue of the Instruments inthe South Kensington Museum, p. Ill, and Handbook of Musical Instruments,p. 105). The instrument here mentioned, however, was, I take it, neither ofthese, but the cymbalum of a monastery. This was a bell, or pulsatile instrumentof some sort, suspended in the cloister and struck with a hammer or mallet tosummon the monks to meals in the refectory. The cella or cellarium of a religioushouse was the cellar ; not the wine-cellar only, it included the promptuarium, orstorehouse for food in general. But the word cella was also used to denote themonastery itself, and, more particularly, the open space, interior ambitus, orquadrangle, round which the cloisters were placed. See Du Cange, s.v. ' Cella.'

7 Bannatyne MS., ' so oft ' ; Pinkerton, ' so oft ' ; Asloan MS., ' so soft.'8 The Ancient Cornish Drama, edited and translated by Mr. Edwin Norris,

Vol. I, p. 150.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 13Mr Norris translates the passage thus :

KING DAVIDBlow minstrels and tabours ;Three hundred harps and trumpets ;Dulcimer, fiddle, viol, and sawtry,Shawms, lutes, and kettledrums ;Organs, also cymbals,

Recorders, and symphony.THE FLUTE IN CHAUCER

We are now drawing near to Chaucer's time, but in Chaucer welook in vain for the word ' recorder ', that instrument being calledthe flute. It is often alluded to ; for instance, a prominent figureamongst the pilgrims to Canterbury is the flute-playing squire,a fresh, curly-haired young gentleman about twenty years of age,dressed in the height of fashion, bedecked with flowers white andred, and so well educated that he could write, draw, and dance, thefirst named being an attainment by no means common in those daysoutside the Church. His chief occupation was singing and playingthe flute, to which he devoted the greater part of the day. Butthese pastimes were not a mere excuse for idleness ; he had acquireda knowledge of music of which few amateur flute players in thepresent day can boast ; ' he could songs make and well indite/we are told, a statement implying that he could compose and reduceto notation, if not harmonize, melodies . Nor did his accomplishmentsinvolve the slightest taint of effeminacy. He is described as a manof middle height, of great strength and wonderful activity, a good andgraceful rider, as well as a jouster that is, a man skilled in the mockcombats with lance and sword so common in the Middle Ages ; more-over, notwithstanding his youth, he had taken part in a military raidon horseback in France, and had borne himself well on the occasion.

' Singinge he was or fioytinge al the day ;He was as fresh as is the month of May.Short was his goune with sieves long and wide,Wei coude he sit on hors, and fayre ryde.He coude songes make, and wel endyte,Juste and eeke daunce, and well purtreye and wryte.' lIn The Romaunt of the Rose, which is a translation from the

French, we read of 4 floytes ' and ' floutours ',2 or flutes and flute1 Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 91.2Floutours, line 763. The word in the original French isfleiUeors.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 15may be intended, although Pronomus would more nearly resembleProcerus or Presentus. In the third, Marcia, we cannot fail torecognize our unfortunate brother flute-player Marsyas. It is truethat Chaucer assigns to him the feminine gender, but, notwith-standing the change of sex, there can be no doubt of his identity,for there is an unmistakable allusion to the shameful treatment hereceived at the hands of Apollo, who, in a trial as to which couldproduce the better effect on their respective instruments, the lyreand the flute, finding the opinion of the judges going against him,proceeded to use his voice in addition to his lyre, an artifice unworthyof an honest man much less a god, and having thus got a decision inhis favour, tied poor Marsyas to the nearest tree and deprived himof his skin without further ceremony.

Ther saugh I than Atiteris,And of Athenes dan Pseustis,And Marcia that lost her skin,Bothe in face, body, and chin,For that she wolde envyen,1 lo To pypen bet than Apollo.2Chaucer mentions the names of three trumpeters and four harperswhom he heard, but he does not make any remarks on their perform-

ance, except in one case, that of Orpheus, of whom he writes that heplayed full craftily, and that his harp sounded both well and sharp.It is disappointing that so little is said about the instruments. Inaddition to the three bands already specified the harpers, theflute players, and the trumpeters there was a group of per-formers on unclassified instruments, or ' sondry glees J , who weremore numerous than the stars (' mo than sterres been in hevene ') ;yet not one of their * glees ' is described, or even named, the poetdeclining to go into particulars in order to save his readers trouble

1 Envyen, to contend ; strive for the mastery. A word now shortened into* vie '. Skeat. See also Richardson's Diet., s.v. * Vie.'

* And among other mirth Mr. Ackworth vyed wives, each endeavouring toset Ids own wife out to the best advantage, he having as they said an extra-ordinary handsome wife.' Pepys's Diary, May 18, 1660.

1 I ought not to omit to add that Chaucer makes mention of performers onwind instruments of Dutch that is, German nationality :Then saugh I famous, olde and yonge,Pypers of the Duche tonge,To lerne love-daunces, springes,Reyes and these straunge thinges.Reyes are round dances i. e. dances in a ring. SKEAT.


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16 LECTURES ON THE RECORDER('for ese of yow'), as well as to prevent loss of time, and sagelyadding : For tyme y-lost, this knowen ye,

By no way may recovered be.So customary, however, was it for mediaeval poets to give listsof contemporaneous instruments that one feels tempted to suspectthat Chaucer's reticence was due rather to consideration for himselfthan his readers : qui s*excuse s'accuse.The flute players, although not so numerous as the unclassifiedmusicians, still numbered tens of thousands ; but of all the instru-ments played in their monster wood-wind band, the names of onlyfive are given, the cornmuse, the shawm, the flute, the lilt-pipe, orlilting-horn as it is here termed, and the cornstalk flute :

Tho saugh I stonden hem behinde,1Afer fro hem, al by themselve,Many thousand tymes twelve,That maden loude menstralcyesIn cornemuse and shalmyes,And many other maner pipeThat craftely begunne to pipe,Both in doucet and in rede,2That ben at feastes with the brede 3And many floute and lilting-horne,4And pypes made of greene corne,As han thise litel herdegromesThat kepen bestes in the bromes.1 Hem behinde, behind them that is, behind the harp players.2 Both in doucet and in rede. It has been suggested that doucet may bethe name of a musical instrument the doucette. In The Houlate, as we have

just seen, there is named an instrument termed the dulsate, or dulset. Anotherexplanation has been offered by Willert, that both doucet and rede are usedadjectively thus, ' in doucet ' would have reference to dulcet or sweet in-struments, such as the various members of the flute family ; ' in rede,' toinstruments whose sound is produced by means of a reed. See the note onthe passage in Skeat's Chaucer. 3 Brede, roast meat. Skeat.

4 The word * lilt ' usually signifies a bright, cheerful tune, especially onethat sounds high and sharp. * To lilt ' is to execute such a tune ; it may beused of human singing, of the warbling of birds, or of the sound of a musicalinstrument, e. g. :What shepherd's whistle winna UU the spring ? RAMSAY.Come then, my Flute, and let 's beginTo UU ' She rose and let me in '. JAMES MACATJLAY.

It is possible that the word UU, the technical name of the hole in the bag-pipe (the thumb-hole at the back of the chanter), with which the highest noteof the instrument is produced, is connected with

' lilt ' :


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 17Although the word recorder is not to be found in Chaucer, I

shall be able to adduce evidence, only presumptive, it is true, butstill more or less satisfactory, that it was in use in his time. The

' He had the finest finger for the back lill between Berwick and Carlisle.'Willie's tale in Scott's Eedgauntlet.To what instrument the designation lilt-pipe, or lilting-horn, was given isuncertain. The shepherd's pipe has been proposed (see Grove's Diet., s.v.' Lilt ') and the bagpipe has been named (Jamieson's Scottish Diet.). Asthe 1: It-pipe is here mentioned by Chaucer in connexion with the flute, theidea suggests itself that the three-holed pipe played with the tabour may beintended. In favour of this view it may be urged that the tabourer's pipe iscalled in French the galoubet, a name it owes to its merry, sportive sound, theword being derived, according to Chouquet (Catalogue of the Musical Instru-ments in the Museum of the Conservatoire of Paris), from the Proven9al gal,gay or joyous, and oubet for aubet, a diminutive of auboi, hautboy. The namehautboy (haut bois) is particularly appropriate to this little flute, it being anoctave above the piccolo, and thus the highest of all wind instruments.But could the tabourer's pipe be termed with propriety a horn ? It couldonly claim to be entitled to this appellation on account of its bell, or horn-shaped mouth. The application by Chaucer of the word horn to the lilt-pipe ^eems to me to point to an instrument in which a pipe is combined witha horn, the pibcorn (i. e. pipe-horn) or hornpipe. The hornpipe is associatedwith dancing, and I suggest that ' lilting horn ' means * dancing horn ', and' lilt pipe ', ' dance pipe ' ; for lilting is not confined to music, but is used ofleaping lightly, as of deer bounding over a fence, or of dancers who are saidto lilt their feet. Thus Wordsworth, in the ' Redbreast ' :

Whether the bird flit here or there,O'er table lilt, or perch on chair.

It is usually believed that the hornpipe is named under its ordinary title in'The L'omaunt of the Eose : ' With hornpypes of Cornewayle ' ; but as somemaintain that Chaucer wrote not ' horn ', but ' corn ' pipes, the word in theoriginal French being estives, or straw flutes (see Skeat's note on the passage),it cannot be said with certainty that * pypes made of greene corne ' may notbe meant. But see below, p. 278, note. Like the lilting-horn in The Houseof Fame, in The Romaunt of the Rose, the horn or corn-pipe is associated withthe flute, the line in which it is mentioned being followed by

'

In floytes madehe disrordaunce '.The hornpipe is named in the Promptorium Parvulorum, where it is rendered

into Latin by Palpista on the authority of Robertus Kylwarbi. The wordPalpis'a I cannot discover elsewhere ; possibly, however, Salpista may beintended, although Salpista is usually used to signify a trumpeter rather thana trumpet.In Scotland the pibcorn is known under the name of the Stock and Horn,the stock being the thigh-bone of a sheep or a piece of elder. The followingquotation from Ramsay's 'Gentle Shepherd' shows that the stock andhorn -was a shepherd's instrument, that a performance on it could be called


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18 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERPromptuarium, or Promptorium, Parvulorum is the earliest EnglishLatin dictionary extant. Its compiler, a Dominican friar of Lynnin Norfolk, unfortunately knew little of, and possibly cared nothingfor, musical instruments. He was an anchorite or recluse ; and,as such, had been consigned with the consent of his superior, sealedwith all the solemnity of a religious service, to a self-imposedimprisonment. Immured in a cell,1 or * stodyyng howse 5 (as hewould have us understand the word cell to signify), which he couldnot quit, except in case of necessity, without the permission of thebishop, he seems to have regarded fluting and fiddling as butvanities of this wicked world. The date of the Promptorium isknown with tolerable certainty to be 1440, just forty years afterChaucer's death.whistling, and, by inference, that it might be the ' shepherd's whistle ' of thepassage from Kamsay quoted above :When I begin to tune my stock and horn,Wi' a' her face she shaws a cauldrife scorn.

Last night, I play'd ye never heard sic spite O'er Bogie was the spring and her delyte ;Yet tauntingly she at her cousin speer'd,' Gif she could tell what tune I play'd ? ' and sneer'd.Flocks wander where ye like, I dinna care,I'll break my reed and never whistle mair.

It is believed by Engel that, under the name of the ' corne pipe ', the stockand horn is mentioned, along with the recorder, in an enumeration of instru-ments played by the following extraordinary octet party composed of Scotchshepherds, described in the Complaynt of Scotland (1548) : ' The fyrst hadane drone bagpipe, the next hed ane pipe maid of ane bleddir and of anereid, the third playit on ane trump, the feyerd on ane corne pipe, the fyfthplayit on ane pipe maid of ane gait home, the sext playt on ane recordar, thesevint plait on ane fiddil, and the last plait on ane quhissel.' An interestingand very complete account of the instrument is given in a paper by HenryBalfour, Esq., on * The Old British Pibcorn or Hornpipe and its affinities ',in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. XX, p. 142. See alsoStainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, s.v. ' Hornpipe,' andEngel's Catalogue of the Instruments in the South Kensington Museum, pp. 293and 373, where the lines from Ramsay are quoted.

1 The opinion has been expressed that the compiler of the Promptoriumwas ' starved to death between four walls ', but Mr. Way gives no credenceto the story. It is a false inference, he thinks, from the statement that hewas ' inter quatuor parietes pro Christo inclusus '. It seems that the door ofan anchorite's abode could not be opened without breaking a seal which wasaffixed to it, food being handed in at the window. Friar Geoffrey had, nodoubt, got leave to immure himself in a study-house, as he calls it, in order todevote his life to the compilation of his lexicon.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 19Both ' recorder ' and ' flute ' are found in the lexicon. Recorder,which is distinguished as ' lytyl pype ', is translated by canula,

& word used by Papias when referring to the instrument on whichthe chorus-flute player (choraules, or choraula) used to play.1 But,for the purpose of our inquiry, the importance of the entry in thePromptorium lies in the circumstance that an earlier work, theCampus Florum, is cited as the authority for the rendering. Muchuncertainty prevails respecting the Campus Florum, but Lelandconjectures that Thomas Guallensis, or Walleys, to whom it hasbeen attributed, flourished about the time of Edward II, whilst twowriters give 1359 as its probable date,2 so that, assuming, as wehave a right to do, that its author mentioned the recorder by name,we can here trace back the word to the middle of the fourteenthcentury.On turning in the Promptorium to ' flute ', we should naturallyexpect to see tibia, fistula, or the Low Latin word flauta, as itsequivalent ; but, strange to say, neither of them is given, tibiabeing reserved for

' trumpe ' and fistula for ' pype ', whilst flautais not named ; but in two manuscripts flautorium, a word I have notseen elsewhere, is added. The Latin synonyms for ' flute ' are threein number. The first, cambucus, is given on the authority of

' Oanula, fistula, Gallice Flute. Instrumentum musicum. Papias inMS. Bituric. Choraules, Princeps chori, vel qui Canulis, id est fistulis canit.Chora/ile enim Greece Canula dicitur.' Du Cange. The Papias here named,who was an Italian grammarian of the eleventh century, wrote for theinstruction of his children a Latin lexicon. According to Way, this lexiconsupplied the ground-work of the Dictionary or Vocabularium of Ugutio, Bishopof Feirara, who flourished in the next century. It is conceivable that theauthor of the Campus Florum might have derived the word canula from oneof these works.

2 Appendix to the Promptorium, edited by Way, p. Ixxxiv. The CampusFlorum is referred to on page after page of the Promptorium. Mr. Way sug-gests the possibility of the work being known under some other title. Atreatise, entitled Campus Florum, in the library of St. Peter's College, Cam-bridge, has been examined by him, and proves to be quite different from theCampv s Florum used in the compilation of the Promptorium. The CampusFlorun>, so often quoted there seems to have been a vocabulary or dictionary.Whilst I was preparing the second edition of this Lecture for the press, myattention was drawn by Mr. John Finn, to whom I have often been indebtedfor kind assistance, to the statement in a newly-published work, Mr. GrattanFloodV History of Irish Music, that the recorder is mentioned in the Mani-pulus Florum, a treatise devoted to the explanation of Bible words and texts,but I have not verified the statement. The Manipulus Florum was begun in1280, and finished in 1306, more than thirty years before Chaucer was born.02


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20 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERRobertus Kylwarbi. As Robertus Kylwarbi was made Archbishopof Canterbury in 1272, a cardinal in 1278, and died soon afterwards,we have now got as far back as the thirteenth century. The wordcambucus is not to be found in Du Cange ; but cambuca occurs, not,however, as the name of a musical instrument, but of the crozier,or bishop's pastoral staff. Possibly cambucus may be a scribe'serror for sambucus, this being the name of the elder-tree, whosebranches, when the pith was removed, furnished (and still furnishfor boys) a ready-bored tube, for the construction of flutes. Sambuca,which was also used to denote the elder,1 is given in the Promptoriumas the Latin equivalent of another wind instrument, the

' schalmuse 'or shawm,2 although the name sambuca was more commonly applied,both in classical times and in the Middle Ages, to a stringed instrumentof the harp kind ; indeed, in the Promptorium itself, sambuca standsfor lute ; also, on the authority of Robertus Kylwarbi, for lay harp.The second of the three synonyms for the flute is ydraula. This

word appears elsewhere in the Promptorium as the Latin for ' orgonpype ', so that we here have a confirmation of correctness of theopinion that ' flue-pipe ' was, at first, ' flute pipe.' The authoritygiven for this use of the word ydraula is that of William Brito, whodied in 1356. Thus it would seem that in the fourteenth centuryorgan pipes were called flutes.

Calamaula, the third synonym, is also written in mediaevalLatin Calamaulis, Calamellus, and Calamella. It is the word whichgave its name to the chalumeau, or shawm (old French, chalamelle).And here there peeps out a vestige of the almost incredible rancourwith which the early Christians assailed the flute. It is true thatwe no longer meet with the fierce invective of Saint Epiphanius, northe coarse insults, too gross for modern ears, of Saint Clement ofAlexandria ; 3 a thousand years had softened the asperity of fanati-cism into the mild indictment that the flute was a gugaw. Undercover of an illustration of the use of the word calamaula, the wily' ankyr ' introduces a monkish ' Versus. Pastor sub caula bene

1 ' Sambuca in musicis species est symphoniarum. Est etiam genus lignifragilis unde et tibiae componuntur,' Isidore, quoted by Du Cange. 'Sam-buca is the Ellerne tree brotyll, and the bowes therof ben holowe, and voydeand smothe ; and of those same bowes ben pipes made, and also some manersymphony, as Ysyder sayth,' Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus. (SeeHawkins, chap. Ix, also supra, p. 158, note.)

2 Cerone, in a work written in Spanish, and published at Naples in 1613,includes the Sambuca in a list of wind instruments. (Hawkins, chap, cxxiii.)

3See below, Lecture VI, pp. 331, 334.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 21ean'at cum calamaula ', which he translates thus : ' The scheperdvndyr fe folde syngythe well wythe hys gwgawe fe pype.' Onturning in the vocabulary to ' gugaw ' in order to ascertain whatmeaning Brother Galfridus attached to the word, the reader isinformed that gugaw is the same as flute, and, it is added, fiddle x(giga) It is only fan1 , however, to Friar Geoffrey, to whose meeknessand modesty his book testifies, to say that he assigns the responsi-bility of stigmatizing the flute and the giga as gugaws to the ' garulussopliista ', as Bishop Bale calls him, Robertus Kyiwarbi.

' Flute, 5 we may reasonably suppose, came over with William theonqueror, but recorder ' appears to be a word of English growth.

Although it crossed the Channel, for we meet with it in Praetorius,it never took root in foreign soil. How, when, or where it originatedit is impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to say ; butI have just traced it, without going beyond well-known channels,to the fifteenth, and, by inference, to the fourteenth century.Possibly, a special search would show that it was in use at a stillearlier period. On the other hand, as we look in vain for it in anAnglo-Saxon dictionary, we may assume that it did not come intoexistence until after the Norman Conquest. The verb, to record,was formerly in common use in the sense of to sing like a bird ;

1 ' GTJGAW, idem quod FLOWTE, pype, supra in F ; et giga, KYLW.' Onthis entry in the Promptorium, Mr. Way remarks as follows : ' Variousetymologies have been proposed of the word gugaw , in its ordinary sense ; Crepundia, toyes, or gugawes for children, as rattles, clappers, &c.Juruus, by Higins. Bdbiole, a trifle, whim-wham, gugaw, or small toy

for a child to play withall. COTG. Skinner suggests Anglo-Saxon gegaf,nugai , or heawgas, simulacra, or the French word joyau, but gogue or gogailleseems more nearly to resemble it, and signifies, according to Roquefort, bagatelle, plaisanterie. Gogoyer, se rejouir &c. It would seem, however,that t he word is here given as synonymous with flute, and the inquiry suggestsitself whether it had originally denoted some musical instrument, and thencebeen used in a more general signification. According to Roquefort, there wasa wind instrument called gigue, and this statement corresponds with theobservation of Ferrari, that giga, Ital., may be derived from ylypas, a kind offlute. It is singular that, according to Brockett and Jamieson, a jews' harpis called in North Britain a gewgaw ; but in that instance, as likewise here,in the Promptorium, it seems probable that the word is used merely in refer-ence to that with which idle disport may be taken, like trifles in childhood.'I may add that, according to Engel (History of the Violin Family, p. 97), theSwede s at the present day call the jews' harp giga, or mungiga. Moreover,the gittern has been termed giga by old writers. See Way's note on Gyternein the Promptorium. It is, therefore, far from certain that by giga FriarGeoffrey meant fiddle, as I have assumed.


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22 LECTURES ON THE 'RECORDERthus a recorder is a warbler, a truly appropriate name for so sweetand flexible a pipe.1

1 The word was employed without restriction in speaking of singing birds.It was applied to the song of the nightingale :to the lute

She sung, and made the night-bird mute,That still records with moan.SHAKESPEARE, Pericles iv. Prol. 25.To that of the lark : to hear the lark

Record her hymns and chant her carols blest.FAIRFAX, Tasso.

To the warbling of birds in general :Hark, hark Oh, sweet, sweet How the birds record too BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Pilgrim v. 4.

Amongst bird-fanciers, recording was confined to a technical meaning ; itdenoted the first attempts of a bird to sing, a use of the term extending backas far as Palsgrave's time : ' I recorde as yonnge byrdes do, Je patelle. Thisbyrde recordeth allredy ; she will synge within a whyle : Cest oyeselet patelledesja, die chantera avant quil soyt longtemps' When used of human singing,it would seem that recording could not with propriety be applied to singingin general, but was restricted to humming, or at least to such singing as wassoft and low. In Monsieur Thomas, one of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays,Thomas refuses to allow two of his comrades, who were to watch at nightbeneath a lady's window, to sing, but gives them leave to record :

Thomas. By no means ; no, boys ;I am the man reserved for air, 'tis my part ;And if she be not rock my voice shall reach her.Ye may record a little, or ye may whistle,As time shall minister : but for main singing,Pray ye satisfy yourselves : away, be careful.

I am aware that a commentator has sought to explain the passage by sup-posing that ' ye may record a little ' means ' ye may play a little on therecorder ', but there is nothing to show that Thomas's friends were providedwith recorders, or that they knew how to handle such instruments. Inanother passage sometimes quoted, recording is usually taken to indicate thewarbling of a human songster :The nymph did earnestly contestWhether the birds or she recorded best.

BROWNE, Britannia's Pastorals, Book II, Song iv.The nymph, however, was not singing, but performing on a pipe of the Panflute, here called a quill, that is, a reed, or cane (calamus], partly filled withwater, as the context shows :

'twas her usual sport,Sitting where most loquacious birds resort,


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24 LECTURES ON THE RECORDER

FIG. 2. RIGHT- AND LEFT-HANDED WAY OF PLAYING THE RECORDER,AFTER VlRDUNG

flOtCff. QgFIG. 3. RECORDERS FOR A QUARTET, REDUCED, AFTER VIRDUNG

therefore used to make special provision for a left-handed player.This was done by boring a duplicate hole on the left side of theinstrument for the little finger, then closing it with wax, a material


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 25which could easily be removed andusod to fill the corresponding holeon the other side. Thus, althougheight only were required by theplayer, the recorder was piercedwith nine holes.Nearly four hundred years ago

these particulars were not onlydescribed in words, but were repre-sented in pictures. In SebastianVirdung's Musica getutscht, printedat Basle in 1511, is an engraving(Fig. 1), portraying in a diagramaticform a recorder with its eight holes ;the duplicate perforation for thelittle finger being reckoned as one,whilst the hole for the thumb (Fig.1, 8) is brought by the draughtsmanfrom the back to the side of the instru-ment in order to render it visible.Another drawing (Fig. 2) explainsthe use of the duplicate hole. In thefirst of the two illustrations the in-strument is in the hands of a right-,in the second, of a left-handed player.

In the days of the recorder, itmust be remembered, the differentfamilies of instruments were keptapart, each family constituting aseparate band ; moreover, just asthere was a 'chest for the viols madeto be played together, so was a setof recorders kept in a case of its own.Here, again, we get information fromVirdung. ' Generally,' he tells us,* one makes four flutes in one case,or six ; this is called a set two dis-cant, two tenor, and two bass.' Fur-ther, he gives a drawing of the fourinstruments required to form therecorder quartet (Fig. 3).

FIG. 4. MECHANISM OF OPEN-STANDING KEY.a. Box moved upwards to showthe mechanism ; b. b. cusps of key ;

c. axle on which the first leverworks ; d. pin to keep the lever inits place ; e. spring to keep the keyopen ; /. axle on which the secondlever works ; h. pin to fasten thespring to the wood ; g. pin to fastenthe axle to the wood ; i. valve of key.


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26 LECTURES ON THE RECORDEROn account of the large size of the bass flute, it was not possible

for the little finger to reach its hole on that instrument. To meetthis difficulty recourse was had to an open-standing key, provisionJbeing made for both right- and left-handed players by furnishingthe touch of the key with two cusps. In the drawing of the bassflute from Virdung (Fig. 3), the cusps only are visible, the other partsof the key being concealed from view by a perforated box, or fon-tanelle, with which it is covered. The box was necessary as aprotection for the mechanism, which, without it, would have beenextremely liable to injury, not only on account of its delicate con-struction, but more especially because the spring, which kept thekey open, was particularly exposed, as it was not placed under thelever, pressing it upwards, as in the case of the C and C sharp keysin the foot of our eight-keyed flute, but passed over the lever andpressed it downwards.

It is of importance for the explanation of a key which I shallpresently describe that this construction should be understood.I have, therefore, with the kind assistance of Mr. Lehfeldt, hada drawing (Fig. 4) prepared showing the mechanism of such a keyas it appears in a flute in the South Kensington Museum. A glanceat it will show that on pressing the little finger on either of the cusps(6, 6), the first lever would turn on its axle (c), raise the spring(e), and lift the second lever, which, turning on its axle (/), wouldclose the valve (i).

HENRY VIII AND THE RECORDERTurning to England in 1511, the year in which Virdung's workwas printed, we find the recorder at the very zenith of its popularity.The throne was filled by a flute player. Henry VIII was in the

twenty-first year of his age and the third of his reign. Richlyendowed with mental gifts, the handsomest prince of the time, bluffbut affable, gay and jovial, prodigal of his father's treasures, devoted,like Chaucer's flute-playing squire, to jousting,1 a martial exercise

1 A joust, or just, was a set to, a mock combat, between two knights only ;a tournament, between several at the same time. The lances employed inthe contest, which was usually on horseback, were rarely sharp, the joustinglance terminating in a head called the coronal, or coronoll, fitted with fromtwo to four blunt iron points. As the champions, when charging each other,rode parallel to a barrier, which each of them kept on his left hand, the coronalstruck the combatant on the left side, on which account the armour madefor jousting was strengthened on that side, more especially the helmet, thebreathing apertures of which were commonly placed on the right side only.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 27in which his herculean strength enabled him to prove almost in-variably the victor, he was his people's idol. His proficiency inmusic is usually ascribed to the circumstance that he was trainedas an ecclesiastic, it having been only through the premature deathof his brother Arthur, that he came to the throne. It should,perhaps, rather be attributed to the motive which we may imagineto have influenced the squire in Chaucer the love of the art. Hadhe not been designated for the see of Canterbury he would, doubtless,have been a musician.

Et is not for me to remind the Musical Association of Henry theEighth's skill on the virginals, the lute, and the clavichord ; of hissight singing ; of his setting of songs and making of ballads ; of his' two full masses, everie of them five parts, which were soong often-times in his chappell, and afterwards in diverse other places.' Whenmusicians hear him reviled and loaded with invective, whilst thebenefits we owe to his ability, to his courage, and to his resolutionare studiously and ostentatiously denied him, they should call to mindthat he gave offence to two classes which those who desire to standwell with posterity, if wise, would not fail to propitiate churchmen,and members of the softer sex ; nor should they overlook thesignificant circumstance that he retained his popularity to the dayof his death. More especially am 'I, as a flute player, bound torepeat the solemn admonition, let him that is without sin cast thefirst stone at him. Not only was practice on the recorders and flutehis daily task,1 but he was the possessor of a collection of instrumentsof the flute family the like of which the world has never seen. Theywere a hundred and fifty-four in number, seventy-six of them beingrecorders. No less than twenty-seven were of ivory. Some hadtips of silver gilt, others of gold itself. They were provided withTh


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28 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERcases lined with purple, green, black, and crimson velvet. Thewoods mentioned as employed in their construction are box, walnut,oak, and ebony ; two were made of glass, and one of wood ' paintedlike glass ', Van gilder, the lutenist, had them in his custody, asis shown in the Harleian MS., from which the following list, madeafter the accession of Edward VI, is extracted :

Earl. MS. INVENTORY OF HENRY THE1419. a. EIGHTH'S WARDROBE.

folio 200. INSTRUMENTES AT WESTMINSTER IN THECHARDGE OF PHILIPP VAN WILDER.f . 202.b Item v Cases w fc fflutes and in everie of mj of the saide)Cases nij flutes and in the vth three mutes )Item one Case furnisshed w fc xv fflutes in it

Item one Case wfc tenne flutes in it the same are caulledj

pilgrim staves and the same Case furnisshed con- [teinethe butt vj hole pipes JItem one Case w fc vij fflutes in hittItem v fflutes of Ivorie tipped w 1 golde enameled blackw fc a Case of purple vellat garnisshed at boththendes w* Silver and guilte the same Casefurnisshed conteneth but inj hole pipesItem foure fflutes of Ivorie tipped w* golde in a Casecovered w* grene vellatItem one Case w* vj recorders of Boxe in itItem vii] Recorders x greate and smale in a Case couered)

wfc blacke Leather and lined wfc clothef . 203. Item twoo base Recorders of waulnuttre one of them)tipped wl Silver the same are britt redde wooddejItem foure Recorders made of okin bowes

Item v] Recorders of Ivorie in a case of blacke vellatItem one greate base Recorder of woode in a case of)woodeItem foure Recorders of waulnuttree in a Case coured)

w* blacke vellatItem ix Recorders of woode in a Case of woode

1 A highly interesting set of eight recorders of the sixteenth century, withthe original case, is preserved in the Germanisches Museum at Nuremberg.The set consists of one sopranino, two sopranos, two altos, two tenors, andone bass. The sopranos are a fifth, and the altos an octave, below the sopra-nino, the tenors being an octave below the sopranos, and the bass an octavebelow the altos. See Mahillon's Catalogue of Instruments in the Conservatoireof Brussels.


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECTf . 205. Item a Case coured w* crimeson vellat havinge locke and

all other garnishements to the same of Silvergilte wfc viij recorders of Ivorie in the same Casethe twoo bases garnisshed w* Silver and guilteItem one case of blacke leather w* vnj recorders of boxeItem a case of white woode w fc ix recorders of boxe in the)same j

Item a case coured w* blacke lether wfc vij recorders of)woode in it fItem A litle case coured w* blacke lether w fc in] recorders)

of Ivorie in it fItem one flute and vi phiphes of blacke Ibonie tipped \withe Silver thone of the phiphes lackinge ahtippinge at one ende in a bagge of redde leatherItem ii] fflutes of glasse and one of woode painted like )glasse in a Case of blacke leather )Item nj fflutes of woode in a case of blacke LeatherItem in] flutes in a redde leather bagge

What induced Henry VIII to take up the recorder does notappear ; but his father, Henry VII, seems to have shown a par-tiality to the instrument. Henry VII is often charged with avarice,but it is only just to mention that no trace of this vice can befound in his treatment of those connected with music ; it is admitted,however, that he was the first English king after the accession ofHenry HI whose expenditure was not in excess of his income ;whereas, the unthinking multitude, blind to the axiom, the richertho rich, the better for the poor, expect princes to squander, regard-ing, not him who gathers, but him who scatters, as their benefactor.We are assured by a distinguished historian 1 that Henry VII oftenrewarded with generosity, that on occasions of ceremony he dis-played the magnificence of a great monarch, that his charities weremany and profuse, and are reminded that his chapel at West-minster still remains a monument of his opulence and taste.The record of his privy purse expenses teems with instancesof his generosity to musicians. Not only were the makers of songsand ballads, the Queen's ' fideler ', and the ' Princesse stryngmynstrels ' rewarded, but no matter whither he went, the localband was seldom forgotten. The shamews (shawms) of Madiston(Maidstone), the waits of Canterbury, of Dover, of Coventry, and ofNorthampton were amongst the recipients of his bounty. Nor werethe humblest passed over ; two shillings were given ' to a womanthat singeth with a fidell '. A recorder player is mentioned by

1 Lingard.


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30 LECTURES ON THE RECORDERname ; ' To Arnolde pleyer at recorders, 20 shillings '. Consideringthat ' Arnold Jeffrey, orgon pleyer ', received only ten shillings ' fora quarter's wages ', the gift was bestowed with no niggard hand.Under date of February 14, 1492, Henry being then at the Tower,

there is a still more remarkable entry : ' To the childe that playethon the records, 20 shillings.' We here catch sight of a youthfulgenius whose talent met with a truly royal recognition. Twomonths later, on April 16, by which time the court had removedto Richmond,1 there occurs the following : ' To Gwillim for

1 Richmond was then known as Sheen ; it was not termed Richmond untilnine years afterwards, when Henry having ' finished much of his new build-ing at his Mannor of Shine ' (the previously existing palace had been burntdown), ' it pleased him to command that it should be called his Mannor ofRichmond, and not otherwise ', thus honouring it with his own title, he havingbeen Duke of Richmond before he came to the throne. Had RichmondCourt, as the palace was styled, been allowed to stand, England would beenriched with another monument of the ' opulence and taste ' of the monarch,' all ' of whose ' acts ', we are asked to believe, * were tinged ' with * the lowand grovelling passion of avarice '. The drawings which have come down tous of the exterior of the building show that it was not only highly picturesque,but most interesting from an architectural point of view, whilst a description,written two years after its completion, bears testimony to the splendour of theinterior. The great hall was hung with costly arras on which were workedrepresentations of many ' battals and seages ', as those of Troy and Jerusalem,and contained ' pictures of the noble kings of this realme in their harnes androbes of goold ', including a portrait of Henry himself, so that the whole room' was most glorious and joyefull to consider and beholde '. The gem of theedifice, however, appears to have been the chapel with its hangings of cloth ofgold, its gold-encrusted and bejewelled altars, and its walls painted withfigures of those English kings who had been canonized for saints. When weadd the attractions of the gardens, in which were pleasant ' gallerys and housisof pleasure to disporte in, at chesse, tables, dise, cardes, bylys, bowlyng aleys,butts for archers, and goodley tenis plays ' to say nothing of the beautiesof the site, amongst other charms the silver Thames flowing in full view fromthe windows it can occasion no surprise that Richmond Court was a favouriteresort, not only of Henry VII, but of Henry VIII, Mary, Elizabeth, Edward VI,Prince Henry, son of James I, and of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I,who formed there a collection of pictures, the dispersion of which is said tohave thrown back the national taste for generations. From the particularsof the valuation made by order of the Long Parliament, by whom the materialsof the beautiful mansion were sold for 10,000, we learn that, when the surveywas made, the great hall was ornamented with eleven statues, and the chapelfitted with handsome cathedral seats, and a fair case of carved wood for a pairof organs. Even the commissioners appointed to make the valuation un-consciously plead for the fair pile, as Lord Bacon calls it. In addition toother commendations, they speak of its ' fourteen turrets which very much


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 31flotes with a case, 70 shillings.' For what purpose could theseinstruments have been intended ? They were not for theuse of the future Henry VIII, for he was onlyten months old. Is it possible that the Solomonof England aspired to govern the ventiges ? Theflutes were not a common set, if we may judge froma comparison of the price paid for them (3 10s.)with that given for a pair of clavychords (10s.), orthat at which three lutes were brought (13s. 4d.each), one of them, purchased in 1501, being formy Lady Margaret, another, in 1505, for my LadyMary, Henry's two daughters.Henry VIII played on both the recorder and the

flute. In his time the flute that is, the transverseor lip flute was a keyless cylindrical tube piercedwith a mouth-hole and six finger-holes, such as isrepresented in Fig. 5. The instrument here depictedmay well have been made in his reign, for it bearsthe name of Rafi, a maker who is said to haveflourished in France at the beginning of the sixteenthcentury. It was in the Loan Collection of MusicalInstruments shown in 1885 at the Albert Hall, where1 had the drawing taken. At that time it belongedto Count Correr ; it is now in the Museum ofthe Conservatoire of Brussels. A similar instru-adoin and set forth the fabric of the whole structure, andare a very graceful ornament unto the whole house, beingpers picuous to the country round about ' . A solitary gatewaywhi( h led from the palace to the green, still surmounted bythe arms of Henry VII, is the sole surviving relic of theglories of Richmond Court. When the flutes were purchased(Api il 18, 1492) Sheen was on the eve of a grand fete, given,it is believed, in celebration of the capture of Grenada fromthe Moors. So prolonged were the festivities that the ' greatand valiant justing ', sometimes within the precincts of thepalace, sometimes without upon the Green, was kept up fora whole month. It was on this occasion that in a tilt be-tween Sir James Parker and Hugh Vaughan, the former waskilled in the way so quaintly described by Stow : ' The causeof his death was thought to belong of a false helmet whichby f( >rce of the Cronacle ' [see p. 27, note] ' fayted, and so FIG. 5. KEY-he w, is stricken into the mouth , that his tongue was borne unto LESS CYLIN-the lander part of the head, and so hee died incontinently.'


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32 LECTURES ON THE RECORDER

FIRST FLUTE. THIRD FLUTE.

SECOND FLUTE. FOURTH FLUTE.FIG. 6. ANGELS PLAYING A FLUTE QUARTET. From a Manuscript ServiceBook in the Library of the Abbey of St. Gall (1562). The original is charminglycoloured.

ment is figured by Virdung (1511), by whom it is termed theZwerchpfeiff. A little later (1529) we have in Agricola thedrawing of a quartet of such flutes (Fig. 70, p. 232), whilstbeautiful

pictures in which they appear may be seen in a manu-


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LITERARY ERRORS ON THE SUBJECT 33script service book (1562) belonging to the Abbey of St. Gall,amongst them there being a representation of a quartet party ofangels,

two masculine and two feminine (judging from the way theirhair is dressed) in full blast (Fig. 6). An Air de Cour for sucha combination from Mersenne's Harmonie Universelle is given infacsimile in Fig. 7, and in modern notation, for which I am indebtedto Dr. Turpin, in Fig. 8. The number of lip flutes, however, playedtogether was not confined to four ; it varied like that of recorders.M. Mahillon mentions that in the early part of the seventeenthcentury a concert of transverse flutes was composed of two sopranosfour altos or tenors, and two basses.As regards the instruments termed flutes in the inventory of thewardrobe of Henry VIII, it is of course impossible to say withabsolute certainty which of them were lip and which fipple flutes ;we know, however, that in Lord Bacon's time flute was used todenot e the lip flute in contradistinction to the recorder. It seemsreasonable to suppose that the flute with the six fifes 1 in the bag

1 In some household expenses of Henry VIII, quoted by Collier in his Annalsof the Stage, a fifer is mentioned by name :4 Drumslades, each ....... 31s.

Jaques, a phipher ....... 31s.We hear of the king's fifer in the expenses of the Princess (afterwards Queen)Elizabeth for the year 1553 the last year of the reign of Edward VI butwhether or not Mr. Jaques was the player alluded to does not appear, we onlyhave : ' Paid to the King's Majesty's dromer and phiphe 20s.' In the firstyear of Queen Mary the names of flute-players are given : ' Players on thefluyt, Oliver Rampons, fee 18 5s. Od., Pier Guye, fee 30 8s. 4d.' In thefourth year of Elizabeth (1561) the charge for ' fluytes ' was 213 6s. 8d.There is a more detailed entry in the accounts for 1571 : ' Itm to the Fluytes,being vj in nombre, viz. Guyllam Duvet at 14d. per diem. Pyro Guye at2s. 8d. per diem. Thomas Pagynton at I2d. per diem. Allen Robson atI2d. por diem. James Furyarte at 20d. per diem, and Nicholas Lanyer at2Qd. pc r diem for his wages for his bowrde wages 11. 11s. 8d. and for hisliverye* yerely 13Z. 6s. 8d. In all per Ann. ISSl. 4s. 2d.' Ten years later(1581) the charge was higher; ther

Documents

Six Lectures on the Recorder