Shawm
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Classification | Double reed |
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Related instruments | |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Herderstafereel_met_een_schalmeispeler_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-1494.jpeg/220px-Herderstafereel_met_een_schalmeispeler_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-1494.jpeg)
The shawm (.
The body of the shawm is usually turned from a single piece of wood, and terminates in a flared bell somewhat like that of a
Since only a short portion of the reed protrudes past the pirouette, the player has only limited contact with the reed, and therefore limited control of dynamics. The shawm's
Etymology
In English the name first appears in the 14th century. There were originally three main variant forms, (1) schallemele (shamulle or shamble), (2) s(c)halmys (shalemeyes or chalemyes, all plural forms in Middle English), and (3) sc(h)almuse (or schalmesse), each derived from a corresponding variant in Old French: chalemel, chalemie, and chalemeaux (the plural of chalemel), each in turn derived from the Latin calamus ('reed'), or its Vulgar Latin diminutive form, calamellus. Calamus, in turn, derives from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos), "reed, cane".
(The name of a somewhat different reed instrument, the chalumeau, also shares this etymology.) The early plural forms were often mistaken for a singular, and new plurals were formed from them. The later reduction in the 15th and 16th centuries to a single syllable in forms such as schalme, shaume, shawme, and finally (in the 16th century) shawm, was probably due to this confusion of plural and singular forms.[6]
In
However, it is also possible that the name comes from the
Use
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Woman_playing_bass_Shawn%2C_Tobias_Stimmer.jpg/220px-Woman_playing_bass_Shawn%2C_Tobias_Stimmer.jpg)
By the early 16th century the brash tonality of the medieval shawm had been modulated by a narrowing of the bore and a reduction in the size of the fingerholes. This also extended the range, enabling the performer to play the notes in the second octave. Larger sizes of shawm were built, down to the great bass in B♭, two octaves and a major third below the soprano in D. However, the larger sizes were unwieldy, which made them somewhat rare.
The smaller sizes of shawm, chiefly the soprano, alto and sometimes the tenor, were more often coupled with the
Before the discovery of a still shawm aboard the shipwreck of the Mary Rose, instrument historians had been puzzled by references to "still shawms", or "soft" shawms, that were said to have a sound that was less shrill than earlier shawms.[9] The still shawm disappeared from the musical scene in the 16th century; the instrument found on the Mary Rose is the only surviving example. A reproduction has been made and played. Combined with a pipe and tabor, it provides a "very effective bass part" that would have produced "rich and full sound, which would have provided excellent music for dancing on board ship".[10]
The shawm was reserved almost exclusively for outdoor performance—for softer, indoor music, other instruments such as the crumhorn and cornamuse were preferred. These were double reed instruments fitted with a capsule that completely enclosed the reed, which softened the sound but still did not allow for any variation in dynamics.
Known by the Spanish term
Progeny of the shawm
A tenor shawm in C with a single key [without the customary lower extension to G], with a range of a perfect twelfth, was described as a nicolo according to Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum II (1619), pages 23 and 36, but was not illustrated. Praetorius does, however, illustrate in Plate 13 in the supplementary volume of illustrations, the Theatrum instrumentorum (1620), along with crumhorns, a bassett:nicolo which has the outward appearance of a capped shawm with four keys, but in fact conceals a mostly cylindrical bore. (The range of the bassett: nicolo descended to the A below great C and was just over four feet in length; a shawm of this range, i.e., with a conical bore, would require more than 9 feet of bore length.)[citation needed]
Oboe
The shawm inspired the later 17th-century
Dulcian/bassoon
The 16th-century proclivity for building instruments in a full range of sizes was naturally extended to the shawm, but the extreme length of pipe of the bass instruments meant that few were built and played, due to their cumbersome size.[citation needed] A solution was devised whereby the bore was in effect "folded back" upon itself, creating a much more manageable instrument. The new instrument is often referred to as the dulcian, and was called curtal in England,[12] fagott or fagotto in Germany and Italy, and bajón in Spain.[citation needed] The dulcian, like the first oboes, employed direct lip-to-reed contact, which allowed for much greater control over the sound than was offered by shawms. This led to the dulcian becoming very popular, serving as a bass both to the other shawms and even to indoor ensembles that did not feature shawms, afforded by its ability to play quietly. The dulcian was the forerunner to the bassoon, which like the oboe was a Baroque invention.[citation needed]
Charumera
The charumera (チャルメラ), or charumeru (チャルメル), is a double-reed instrument in traditional
Modern performances
- Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance—David Munrow and The Early Music Consort of London
- City of Lincoln Waites[15] (The Mayor of Lincoln's own Band of Musick)
- Many recordings by Blackmore's Night, and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band feature shawms
See also
- Bombard, a shawm of Brittany
- Gyaling, a Tibetan shawm-type instrument
- Hirtenschalmei or "shepherd's shawm"
- bagpipefingering
- Piffero, a similar instrument from Italy which is still used in Italian folk music
- Taepyeongso, a shawm-type instrument used in folk music in Korea
References
- ^ The Shawm and Curtal—from the Diabolus in Musica Guide to Early Instruments
- ISBN 0-19-814975-1.should be classified as an oboe. It must be admitted that 'oboe-girl' is less evocative than the 'flute-girl' to which classicists have been accustomed, and that when it is a question of translating Greek poetry 'oboe' is likely to sound odd. For the latter case I favor 'pipe' or 'shawm.'
The single reed or clarinet mouthpiece was known to other ancient peoples, and I should not venture to assert that it was not known to the Greeks. But the evidence of both art and literature indicates that it was the double reed that was standard in the Classical period. Under the Hornbostel-Sachs system, therefore, the aulos
- ISBN 9780313324376.
- ^ John Tyrrell(London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ^ Jeremy Montagu, "Shawm [shalme, hautboy, hoboy, wait-pipe]", The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
- ^ "Shawm". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.).
- ^ Sibyl Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary, corrected edition (The Norton Library N758) (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975): 58
- ^ Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti, edited by Alberto Basso, (12+2 volumes), Il lessico—vol. I, Torino, UTET, 1983, p. 550.
- ^ Jermy Montagu "Music on Board the Mary Rose", in Gardiner (2005), pp. 226–30
- ^ Charles Foster "Wind Instruments", in Gardiner (2005), pp. 240–241.
- ^ Baines 1991.
- ISBN 9780253357069.
- ISBN 0-300-09317-9.
- ^ Sibyl Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A yo Dictionary, corrected edition (The Norton Library N758) (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975): 90
- ^ "Lincoln Waites - Home". April 14, 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-04-14.
Bibliography
- Baines, Anthony. 1967. Woodwind Instruments and Their History, third edition, reprinted with corrections 1977, with a foreword by Sir Adrian Boult. London: Faber & Faber ISBN 0-571-08603-9. Unaltered reprinted, New York: Dover Publications, 1991.
- Baines. 1991.[full citation needed].
External links
Media related to Shawms at Wikimedia Commons
- Video of a band in Germany in Lubeck 2017 playing "shawms"; the Germans call this instrument a "Schalmei". Definitely will bring a smile to your face!
- The Renaissance Shawm
- Dolçaina valenciana
- Shawm
- The Dulcian
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.