Music M401
History and Literature of Music I:
Antiquity to 1750
Renaissance Instruments
Be sure to visit the
Guide to
Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
at the website of Iowa State University's Musica Antiqua for
descriptions, pictures, and sound examples of Medieval and Renaissance
instruments.
Winds
- Flutes: recorder, transverse flute
- Brass: trumpet, sackbut (predecessor of the trombone)
- Cornett (played with cupped mouthpiece and made of wood or ivory)
- Uncapped double reeds: shawm (predecessor of the modern oboe), curtal
(predecessor of the modern bassoon), racket
- Capped double reeds: crumhorn, Rauschpfeif, cornemuse
Plucked Strings
- Gut-strung: lute, vihuela, guitar, harp (arpa doppia and diatonic)
- Metal or wire strung: cittern, bandora (or pandora), orpharion
Bowed Strings
- Unfretted bowed strings: fiddles (rebec, vielle, kit), lira di
braccio, violin family
- Fretted bowed strings: viols (viola da gamba)
Keyboard
- Organ: large church organ, positive, regals (small reed organ)
- Clavichord (strings struck with metal tangents)
- Harpsichord, virginal, spinet (strings plucked by quills)
Percussion
- Drums: tabor (as in pipe and tabor), side drum, timpani, kettle drum
(often with military uses or associations)
- Metallophones: cymbals, triangles, xylophone
Instruments, such as viols and most wind instruments, were often built in
families of different sizes. Consorts of like instruments
were common, as were ensembles of like timbre or sound production such as
the wind band. When instruments of different timbres were mixed
for contrast in an ensemble, it was known in English as a broken
consort.
Last updated: 23 October 2005
URL: http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/m401/instrum.html
This page was created by Patrick Warfield and James
Rodgers
and is maintained by J. Peter Burkholder
Comments: burkhold@indiana.edu
Copyright © 1997-2005 by J. Peter Burkholder and Patrick Warfield