Researching the Recorder in the Middle Ages David Lasocki e know from numerous sur­ to see it as part ofthe larger family of W viving examples and depictions flutes. We also need to supplement the This article is a popular summary that various members of the flute surviving examples and depictions author'sforthcoming e-book, family existed in Western Europe in with written evidence-from literary The Flute Family in the Middle Ages: the period 1100-1500. Internal-duct sources and from inventories and pay­ Names and Literary References. flutes were common and their form ment records. When I started looking See his web site at was hardly standardized. Panpipes, at the latter in 2003, a lecture I was www.instantharmony.net left over from ancient times, were going to give at the Utrecht Sym po­ The author will receive the 2011 ARS ubiquitous, at least through the turn sium, I was surprised to discover that Distinguished Achievement llward in ofthe 15th century. Transverse flutes no one had ever made a systematic April in Portland, OR (see page 4). played a role that has not been fully survey ofinventories and payment researched yet. records. So I made a survey myself, Acknowledgements «Internal-duct" is just a fancy way and was further surprised at how many In translating and interpreting the ofdescribing a windway on the inside type existed, and how sources, I am most grat~fulfor the instrument. At first, such instru­ useful they were for researchers. inestimable help rfProfessor Maureen ments came in sizes from small down When I turned a couple ofyears Boulton (Anglo-french), Ben Finnegan to minute, and possessed from two to ago to previous research derived from (Latin), Professor Edoardo Lebano seven holes, in various conformations. literary sources, it soon became clear (Italian), Dr: Eric Metzler (German), The kind of "pipe" played one-handed that, with the exception ofa few studies Professor losep Miquel Sobrer (Catalan), by a performer who also beat a small on France and Germany, little system­ and especially Professor Samuel N drum ("tabor") slung around the neck atic research had been done on that Rosenberg (French and Occitan). I greatly tended to have a thumb-hole and two subject either. It should be no surprise appreciate the generosity rfPierre Boragno finger-holes. Towards the end that I decided to make my own survey in making his research materials available 14th century a form ofduct flute with ofthe literary sources. The present and Liane Ehlich in conveying the results a thumb-hole and seven finger-holes article summarizes the results ofall rfher iconographic research on Medieval emerged that would eventually become the written evidence I have found. flutes. Bernard Gordillo provided the most common and playa signifi­ Some useful quotations from lit­ helpful research support. Thanks to cant role in art music-the recorder. erary sources can be found in historical Philippe Boltonfor the scan Ifwe want to research the history language dictionaries. But in making Virdung'sfingering chart, ofthe recorder in this period, we need use ofsuch quotations to decide what Medieval instruments ~\ were called, compilers of I", and (i(ifloyt, such dictionaries, as well ~.\.::. i /"'1.. . ~l11-i'\ ~;".. ~~. ..-. ") ~~. r 14th­ as scholars ofmusical " ii",. 1...... ~ ,;,j) '. ,1::"'".: fl t <,,1'1 .'1-' ~ . ('"Lt- ""~tl.r century instruments, have t_r ",' . ,; .'" <, '" t _.' ., .. ""1 n ..a ,,~ ~ ! ...... ,~"" 1- !" " "'''' .... • manuscript, generally relied on "'-"'...'.'... ' .'\'(, "',.g:>....Y.e... .r::...,. .-1 H'n\ ." extrapolation backwards '.i1{1.. l!! ! "pt""'" Ms. 21069, ..;,'.'a'.';.'. ,,' ! ~.tr ..... "1F !_' .. , .~... : y-'~,,·"'O .'or f.39r, from later usage ofterms ,C'~) : Biblio­ such asflute (in many ~; , : ,;'",,' t languages) and flageolet, ,.1.·. theque i'" ..... i assuming that the same ~~ 2~. :;...,,'J"i- 'I Royale, 11'__r- --....:. e -<: :':fjj !!!ti Brussels, name implied the same instrument. To avoid this Belgium. I ~.~ I began with the ~r first instances where names ofinstruments are

14 January 2011 American Recorder Sebastian Virdung's Musica getutscht the word "flute" in their language The first surviving auszgezogen (Basel, 151 CO:[11UtnctlOn with similar de::,rMn­ description ofa recorder He calls the instrument Dlctm'es, and fingerings: as does Martin n.glil-Uld linked to a name is

found in a Latin treatise treatises in other countries tend to use

ofthe late 15th century. Dia.grams from Virdung~s Musica getutscht und auszgezogen (1511), showing first the right hand on top~ left hand under~ clearly linked to a description or depiction, then took those same terms and then the opposite; (middle) his fingering chart; and traced them forwards from their (bottom)Virdung's diagram labeled Floten. first occurrences in history. A 14th-century Flemish manu­ script ofa 12th-century Latin work, De planctu Naturae by Alain de Lille, includes drawings to accompany a description ofa concert by the musicians ofHymeneus, the

underneath. One is a four-llOleo with a thumb-hole and three finger-holes. The other seems to a seven-holed duct flute without a thumb-hole (see illustration, previous page). The first surviving description recorder linked to a name is found in a Latin treatise ofthe late 15th century, Johannes Tinctoris's De inventione et usu musice (Naples, c.1481-83). It mentionsfistula (literally, pipe or tube), a particular type ofwoodwind instru­ ment (tibia) with "seven holes in front and one behind." He was also famil­ iar with the practice ofdoubling seventh finger-hole on some unnamed so that Dlavers could

arrangement was common on pre-lSaroque recorders. ~.I."''''M_I'Mer=ri,::...;_:kG~ The first vernacular description 1IOrt., recorder linked to a name, the surviving description linked to a t::=E:L::;~B picture, and the first fingering chart I Ij§"..... ,..... - ..bi) come from the early 16th century:

www.AmericanRecorder.org January 2011 15 consisting oftwo pipes and T alJlature de la Flufte " troif troys. .A two (probably double) reeds. But since the word was also I I : {: I : I ;=E~ -'! :r::;'" :!: to any long hollow tube, it could to any wind instrument consisting ofa pipe "With or with­ out a reed. For essentially the same double-reed Tabor-pipe (1) and its fingering chart; and the Romans employed the flageolet (r)~ both from Marin Mersenne~ term tibia, or occasionally Harmonie universelle (Paris~ 1636). . a word that poets used for the shepherd's panpipes. andflauto in Italian (Silves­ cross-pipes)-with a deDiction and Both tibia andJtstula turn tro Ganassi, Opera intitulata a fingering up again in the Middle Ages fbntegara, 1535; Aurelio It is not until Marin Mersenne's and Renaissance, as we have Virgjliano, II Dolcirnelo, Harrnonie universelle (Paris, 1636) already seen with Tinctoris, c.1600). that we find a name with a picture as names for woodwind In contrast, the main and a fingering chart for the tabor­ instruments in general, or term used for the recorder pipe, which he callsfluste atrois trous for members ofthe flute in 1556 by Philibert Jambe (three-holed flute). He also provides family in particular. de Fer, who also depicts the the same for the flageollet orjluste asix You may have seen the instrument and provides trois (flageolet or six-holed flute), a assertion that the recorder fingerings it, isfleute a duct-flute with two thumb-holes and is termedfistula anglica in a neuftrous (flute with nine four finger-holes. And he differen­ 12th-century English manu­ holes -including the tiates between thefluste d'Allernand in Glasgow called the doubled seventh and theJifre (fife). H unterian Psalter, which This term indirectly fur­ o c shows King David tuninll his nishes the earliest corroboFd­ Roots ofthe Words harp and surrounded tion ofthe meaning of "recorder" in Let us now go back to ancient times musicians. In fact the illustration is English, because Jean Palsgrave's and trace all these kinds not labeled. I can only think that English-French dictionary, Les clar­ fiji-e, fistula, flageolet, flauto, FlOte, floyt, somehow the originators ofthe asser­ cissernent de la languefrancoyse (Lon­ Querpfeiff, recorder tion knew the term for the recorder don, 1530), includes the definition: and tibia-forwards in ancient Greek used by Mersenne in the Latin ver­ "Recorder a pype fleute a. ix. neuf and Latin, as well as in older versions sion ofhis treatise, Harrnonicorurn trous.... " ofCatalan, Dutch, English, French, published in 1635: "Fistula dulcis, Agricola depicts a tiny Riispfeyff: German, Italian, Occitan (Proven~al) seu Anglica," or in other words: a duct flute with four finger-holes and SDanish. fistula dulcis orfistula anglica. and an expanding bore. He also In ancient Greece, the word aulos Apparently the earliest surviving mentions the klein flotlein, "which has usually denoted a wind instrument account ofmembers ofthe flute family no more than four holes, except that in any language is found in the Latin when the lowest end ofthe instrument Apparendy the earliest Yconornica (1348-52) ofKonrad of is employed (as commonly happens), it surviving account of Megenberg, a German who studied may be reckoned as having five or six and taught at the University ofParis. holes." He includes a fingering chart members ofthe flute The book is a compilation of material as well as an illustration ofthe klein language family in any that the young sons of princes needed Flodin (presumably a casual variant of is found in the Latin to study. One section is about the serv­ the spelling) with four holes. Finally, ants ofa household, including its musi­ Agricola was the first to link a name for Yconomica (1348-52) cians, who are among the servants transverse flutes-actually, two names, ofKonradofAfegenbetg. providing entertainment. He views Schweitzer odder Querpfeiffin (Swiss or

16 January 2011 American Recorder such musician-servants as distinct contexts than in soft contexts. German more than 50 works ofart, mostly from, and vastly superior to, Medieval romances and Dutch archi­ from France and Germany, but sional jongleurs. val records generally put thefloite in also England, Mallorca and Spain. Wind players are divided into two the hands ofminstrels. In Therefore the suggestion by scholars macrqfistulus and mtlcm.ttstultl(s. its sound was described as loud that the instrument may have been The latter "is the one who makes music or resonant. subsumed under the term flaiite is on a smaller oioe (fistula): and I call men-

been subsumed - .... -~.. r"'J IS reminiscent ofKonrad ofMegenberg's Terms for the Recorder breath ofthe mouth, but the sound termflatilla, although his description Through the research summarized is weak and feeble. Whence they ofthat instrument as "weak and feeble" above, we have gained some perspec­ sometimes play together with fiddles." suggests general duct flutes rather than tive on the terms that may have refer­ Later he writes thatflattile "arouse or tabor-pipes. red to the recorder when it came on exasperate amorous spirits, and to an Only Brench (jlajol), Occitan the scene in the late 14th century. It extent move them to the sweetness (jlaujol), and Italian (jlauto) had special turns out that the instrument began of [religious] devotion. Organs, terms for duct flute that were clearly to take over the terms that had meant therefore, on account oftheir differentiated from tabor-pipe. Cita­ tabor-pipe in Catalan, Dutch, and multitude [offlute pipes] , are in French poetry are German, Spanish and Italian fittingly allotted a place in churches between minstrels and the last case, also the flauto that where divine services are celebrated." shepherds, with the exception had meant duct In the 15th century the recorder nobleman. Several poems describe the usual spelling was to develop dual sexual/spiritual ...~r-r" or its music as douce (soft or orfluste. associations that continued into at Yet Guillaume l\lachaut's Only English invented a new least the Baroque era. poem La Prise d'Alexandrie, written term, first documented as Recordour In literature, although terms and towards the end ofhis life ( c.13 7 0-72), in 1388 in the household accounts their spellings were far from standard­ mentions that there were at least 20 ized' some general tendencies can be kinds offlajols, both loud and soft. noted. The panpipes that were com­ In his earlier Le remede de Fortune mon until the early 15 th century had (1340s?), he had already singled out their own term in French and Anglo­ Plajos de saus (flajols made ofwillow). French (!restel), English (jristel), and Eustache Deschamps in the late 14th

Occitan (jrestal). The instrument was rpY'T1I1"U mentions "The sweetly/softly associated in ancient times with the resoUloOlng flageolets, which we make pastoral god Pan, and the Middle wood continued to assign it to him as well as to shepherds and shepherd­ esses. Nevertheless, it was also considered a loud instrument and The sole reterence toJtauJot 111 in the hands ofminstrels, Occitan poetry puts the instrument in J0I1g1eUlrs and tower watchers. the troubadour. The rare All the languages had terms for although perhaps the tabor-pipe: Catalan, Occitan, and derived from flajol, seems to have Spanish (jlauta), Dutch (jleute/floyte) , meant tabor-pipe. Only English invented a new English (jlute), French (jlaiite), Anglo­ Until the late 15th century, only term, first documented as French (jleute/floute), German (floite) , Catalan (axabebalxabeva, tra'Vessada), Recordour in 1388 in the and Italian (zufolo). In French poetry, French (jlaiite tra'Versaine), and household accounts ofHenry, theflaiite is almost exclusively asso­ German (zwerchSJ!{tj) had recorded Earl ofDerby (shown here ciated with minstrels and tower watch­ terms the transverse flute. Never- in a 16th-century painting more in loud the instrument is deoicted in as King Henry lV).

www.AmericanRecorder.ol1l January 2011 17 "Pan taught to unite many reeds with wax" These authorities left out an important instituit conjungere plures calamos cera). intermediate step in the derivation In two ofhis earlier poems, Lydgate used jlowte@oyte in ambiguous situations. In Reason and Sensuality (1407), ofthe verb: Anglo-French (formerly he writes of the Mercury: "In his left hand a jlowte he held, knOlVlJ as Anglo-Norman), the dialect When so him list the long day, ofFrench spoken in England after Therewith to pipe and make Which gave so sweet a the Norman Conquest. That no man could himself so keep, But it would make him " ofHenry, Earl ofDerby, the future IV ofEngland. Although left-hand playing might suggest a tabor-pipe, Why English would need a new term, when the Romance the instrument puts people to sleep, as confirmed a few lines and Germanic of the Continent managed later in an initial reference to a Siren: perfectly well with existing terms, may have to do with "But all her singing was in the rarity ofjlagel in England and its switch To be compared, in sothness [truth], from the Frenchjlajol. Unto the excellent sweetness Modern authorities all derive "recorder" from the verb Ofthisjloyte melodious, "to record," stemming from the Old French recorder, and By force ofwhich Mercurius ultimately from the Latin recordari, to remember (re-, Made sleep." plus cord, from cor, heart or mind; thus to bring back to Guillaume de Deguileville's de la vie mind). The comprehensive Middle English Dictionary sets 1) contains a passage about the bellows blast out no than seven families ofmeanings for "to record" ofPride, which "makes pipes and jleutes and shawms emit in the 14th century, deriving the instrument from meaning (jait sonner tuiaus / Etjleutes et chalemiaus). A trans­ rehearse (a " and also lation probably made by Lydgate, The Pilgrimage oJthe comparing it to the Old French recordeor, a word which the Life ojMan (1426), renders the passage Tobler-Lommatzsch dictionary of Old French indeed "Bombards and cornemuse, defines as a "reciter." Eric Partridge's etymological diction­ These Floutys with subtle ary spells out his theory about this connection: the And these shall loud English noun recorder "has agent recordeor, a rememberer, a relater, a minstrel (whence the musical instrument)." Two Medieval recorders: (top) probably from But these authorities left out an important intermediate the late 14th century, discovered in 1940 in in the derivation ofthe verb: Anglo-French (formerly the former moat ofa fortified mansion near known as Anglo-Norman), the dialect ofFrench spoken in Dordrecht, Holland's oldest city; (bottom) England after the Norman Conquest in 1066 until about 15th century, found in 1998 in a latrine in the 1475. Curiously, the equally comprehensive Anglo-Norman old Hanseatic city ofElblag (Elbing), Poland. Dictionary does not cite any use ofrecordl?"or in French, only recordour in the legal sense of "person officially appointed to make a record." Nevertheless, the dictionary shows that the language did transmit meanings ofthe verb recorder that made their way into Middle English, including remember, repeat, recite, and learn by heart. Even in England,jlowte@oyte seems to have overlapnprl with the new word until the 1430s. In literature the first dateable occurrence of "recorder" comes in the poem The fall ojPrinces (1431-38) by John Lydgate: . god of Kind [Nature], with his seven Ofrecorders found first the melodies." In other words, Lydgate saw panpipes as the original type ofduct flute, a corruption ofVirgil's assertion that

18 January 2011 American Recorder The Floutys with their "subtle music" Further Reading sound more like recorders than For the surviving instruments, see Christine Brade, Die mittelalter- pipes, even though Pride's blast forces Kernspaldloten Mittel- und Nordeuropas: Ein Beitrag zur them to "loud cry." pri:thistorischer und zur 1jpologie mittelalterlicher Kernspaltjloten (Neumunster: A little later, the French text refers Karl Wachholtz, 1975); and Nicholas Lander, "A Memento: the Medieval to another member ofthe flute family: Recorder"; available at www.recorderhomepage.net/medieval.html. For the "for I deceive them all with my flaiol" depictions ofrecorders and similar instruments, see the Recorder Home Page's les decoifau flaiol). But the Recorder Iconography section; www.recorderhomepage.net/art.html. Lugu:m version uses the same term as For the author's compilation intormation from In1/erltones, "So sweetly with my Floute I ofInventories and Purchases ofFlutes, Recorders, Flageolets, " Thus the translator saw fleute 1388-1630," in David Lasocki, ed., Musicque Proceedings of andflaiol as interchangeable terms for the International Symposium on the Renaissance Flute and Recorder Consort, Utrecht soft duct flutes, rendered asfloute. 2003 (Utrecht: STIMU Foundation for Historical Performance Practice, A Complaint that "Alas 2005),419-511; also available from www.music.indiana.edu/reference/ thought" is found in two surviving bibliographies/inventoriesto1630.pdf around 1430 in French literature is and .l:'...lements de " Les cahiers c. It contains the which presents the research revealing lines: that he did for an unfinished master's degree. "These little herd-grooms Instruments in German literature are surveyed in Astrid Eitschberger, Floutyn all the long day, Musikinstrumente in hi!fischen Romancen des deutschen Mittelalters (Wiesbaden: Both in April and in May, Reichter, 1999); and Martin van Schaik, Muziekinstrumenten en instrumenten­ In their small recordlers kombinaties in de Duitse literatuur uit de Middeleeuwen (c. 800-1350) (Utrecht: In floutys and in reed spears " Instituut voor Muziekwetenschap der Riiksuniversiteit in samenwekin2' met Recorders and are de Stichting voor Muziekhistorische tinguished now, c.uC>.V'-"F,H On the treatise by Konrad ofMegenberg, see Christopher "flute." By the end ofthe 15 th century, "German Musicians and their Instruments: a 14th-century Account flute was reserved in English for the by Konrad of Megenberg," Early Music 10, no. 2 (April 1982): 192-200. transverse instrument, as today. The earliest recorders, Archival records for jleustes/flustes "four" suggests that recorders were all from around 1400, are soprano- at the Court ofBurgundy commonly used for the four-part sized. But the first to the as 1383. In 1426 and polyphonic music that was already 10 years before Recordour composed in the late 14th cen­ in England, is to flahutes (plural) that in 1454, four minstrels played record­ but more strong-Iv develooed were ordered at the Court in Zara­ ers; and in 1468 four minstrels almost from the 1430s. goza, the capital ofAragon, in 1378. certainly played a four-part chanson We know Virdung (1511) Thereafter, the recorder became estab­ on recorders. that by his time four to six recorders lished as an instrument for art music In Brescia, Italy, in 1408, a piforo were generally put together in a case count ",..rl"..<.rl Court called a coppel: two discants, two tenors, mllsll:la.ns, trequently In con­ in 1416 and two basses. In four-part music, the the king queen ordered range contra part determined ofAragon still owned "tresflautes, and a case for five ofthem. Here whether to two discants, tenor, dues grosses e una negra petita" (three adjective "large" they were and bass or else disc ant, two tenors, recorders, two and one small perhaps discants (and lower sizes?) and bass. black one); this is the first secure rather than sopranos. Finally, in the 16th century, the reference to recorders Bruges is the earliest documented terms for the recorder became more sizes. They were perhaps the ones band to order a case ofrecorders standardized: French (jleute/jlute in and in any case and the presence but could have been used for three-part offour minstrels in the band suggests consort music. that the case contained a set of four recorders. The frequent theme of

www.AmericanRecorder.org January 2011 19