Wind Instruments of the Renaissance
The Renaissance is an important time period for modern music and musical instruments. Many styles and techniques came about in this time. More importantly, most of the instruments that we see today have evolved from instruments from the Renaissance. From the year 1450 to 1550, instrumental music became very popular. Also, instruments were being used alone instead of accompanying voices. And because these instruments differed in ranges and size (i.e. soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), they started to become used more and more in ensembles than for accompanying the human voice. Instruments like the guitar, trumpet, trombone, flute and oboe can all be traced back to more primitive counterparts of the Renaissance. Especially with wind instruments, there is an obvious correlation to this time period. Most of the instruments were made out of wood therefore making the instruments much quieter than today's counterparts. Some, not all, of the instruments used in the Renaissance were the Shawm, Cornett, Recorder, Sackbut, and Flute. All of these instruments operate much the same way. They each have different ways of making the sound by using a reed or buzzing of the lips, but the way pitches are changed is the same. As a finger
Both of these instruments were very lightweight and became very popular among the town's musicians. It was cylindrical in shape and made out of wood, and had a thumb hole and seven finger holes that produced soft mellow tones. Recorders and Flutes (See figures 7-8) were very popular in the Renaissance due to the fact that they were very easy to play. The Curved Cornett is made from a block of wood that is cut in half and hollowed out, and then glued back together. The Renaissance is primarily related to the development of polyphony. The first main reed instrument was the Shawm. (See figure 4) Between the last finger hold and the bell a series of vent holes were put in to tune the instrument and increase its' volume. It was very much like a Flute, but it had a different mouthpiece. The final wind instrument of the Renaissance that was very popular was known as the Sackbut. It made a sound by buzzing the lips into the mouthpiece much like today's brass instruments. Both of these instruments are made from taking one piece of wood, and put two parallel holes down the center. It looked very close to the modern day bassoon. Instead of having a blow hole, it used a mouthpiece that was similar to a whistle. This resulted in the player not having much control over the tone and volume. Smaller Shawms had the reeds put into a pirouette, (See figure 3), whereas the larger Shawms had a crook that connected the reeds to the instrument.
Common topics in this essay:
Renaissance Shawm,
Sackbut Flute,
,
Trombone Sackbut,
Straight Cornett,
Flute Flute,
Shawms Kortholt,
Rauschpfeife Hirtenschalmei,
Kortholt Dulcian,
Renaissance Especially,
instruments renaissance,
modern day,
straight cornett,
reed instruments,
finger holes,
buzzing lips,
sound buzzing lips,
curved cornett,
day trombone,
mute cornett,
similar shawm,
buzzing lips mouthpiece,
modern day trombone,
soft mellow tones,
six finger holes,
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Acceptance Essays
