Machaut paints a vivid picture of all the instruments playing together, but such an event
is unlikely. It is certain that all of the instruments he lists were in use, but they would not
have performed simultaneously; the order in which they are listed in the poem has more
to do with the poetic needs of line scansion and colorful image than implications of
musical ensemble. The poet has mixed together kinds of sounds indiscriminately, but in
reality the ensembles in which they played were rigidly set according to types.
The classification of musical instruments in the Middle Ages was different from that
of today. Rather than thought of in terms of sound mechanism and material type, such as
bowed strings, brass, etc., during the late-medieval period they were divided into two
discrete groups according to volume: haut and bas. Those instruments with loud or shrill
sound, haut, were considered separate from those whose sound was soft, bas, and it was
in these groups that they were played. Various combinations were possible within each
group, but at no point would the instruments of one group perform in the company of the
other. In general, the loud instruments were those used out-of-doors, with the military, or
for festive occasions where loud sounds added to the excitement, such as weddings,
tournaments, or large feasts. In this group were the trumpets, drums, bagpipes, and a reed
instrument known as a shawm. The soft instruments were those that would generally
accompany songs and included the voice itself.
Machaut names three percussion instruments as part of the loud ensemble: tabour, a
large field drum; nacaires, a pair of small kettledrums that usually hung from the waist of
the drummer; and simbales, cymbals. Those were usually found in the company of
various sizes of trumpets: some described only as large and small, and others with special
names, such as the buissine, a large, straight trumpet whose sound is usually described as
“bright,” “noisy,” or “shrill.” Trumpets were used in the military, to sound signals and
rally the troops throughout a battle; they also added to the color and excitement of
festivals and tournaments and lent pomp to civil and religious processions. Trumpets
often signaled the changing of courses during large festive banquets, and they are
occasionally recorded as having played during Mass at the elevation. But their most
frequent duty was as a symbol of nobility, a tradition common to all of Europe, in which
pairs of trumpets with banners preceded noblemen through the streets as they went about
their official duties, and it was the presence of the trumpets that clearly marked the
importance of the noble they accompanied.
To the loud ensemble of percussion and brass instruments were added two
woodwinds: the shawm, or chalumeau, a loud predecessor of the modern oboe, and the
cornemuse, a bagpipe. Both instruments came in several sizes. From the time of their
introduction to Europe from the East in the 12th century, shawms in the alto and tenor
ranges were popular, and in the late 14th century a bass instrument known as the
bombard (probably because it resembled a cannon) was added. A great variety of
bagpipes is depicted in the iconography: with one or two chanters (melody pipes) in
various sizes, with one or two drone pipes, and with no drones at all. Shawms and
bagpipes are also occasionally found along with trumpets and drums in military scenes,
tournaments, and jousts. But whereas the trumpet had a severely limited range of notes,
both shawm and bagpipe could play most of the chromatic scale and therefore were
capable of melodies as well as fanfares and heraldic sounds. Two or three shawms,
sometimes with bagpipe, are often present in scenes with dancing, and during the 15th
The Encyclopedia 1225