capella) approach to most notated music. Nevertheless, by
the beginning of the 16th century at least, first-hand ac-
counts become increasingly explicit about the perfor-
mance of instrumentalists together with SINGERSin many
contexts.
One benefit of the attack on instrumental participa-
tion in early polyphony has been a reduction in indis-
criminately orchestrated performances. The instrumental
combinations that are historically plausible in particular
situations are, in fact, quite tightly circumscribed, even if
the musical sources themselves only make specifications
on rare occasions. The most important distinction is be-
tween haut and bas (loud and soft) instruments, which
were used for separate purposes and rarely combined.
Among the loud instruments, some of the most important
ensemble types were wind bands, which at various points
combined the shawm (a woodwind adopted centuries ear-
lier from the East), sackbut (the early trombone, which
appeared during the 15th century), and later the cornett
(another woodwind, mainly used for high parts). Predom-
inantly a Flemish and German phenomenon in its early
stages, the wind band had spread to all parts of Europe by
the 16th century. Highly skilled in improvisation, these
ensembles were definitely playing mainstream vocal
music as well by the later 15th century, and grew gradu-
ally from three players to five or six in the next century.
Other loud ensembles were considerably more removed
from the world of written art music. The large trumpet
groups retained at major courts mainly played straight and
S-shaped instruments, which had a limited selection of
notes available; their fanfares marked the entrances of sov-
ereigns, the switching of courses at banquets, or the con-
clusions of spectacular royal Mass celebrations. Trumpets
also retained their traditional military functions, for sig-
nals in army movements and battles. In this purpose, they
were joined by drumslades who played large side drums
(unrelated to the “pipe and tabor,” a combination of small
drum and one-handed flute which played regularly with
soft instruments).
In the soft music (reserved most often for an indoor
chamber context, and suited to a different style of singing
from that used in churches), wind instruments included
not only recorders and other flutes, but also quieter rela-
tives of loud instruments. Bowed string instruments of an
earlier period which were retained in common use
through much of the 16th century include the small rebec,
often with only two or three strings, and the larger fiddle
of five or more strings. The viol (viola da gamba), distin-
guished by being played upright on the leg, probably de-
veloped from the Spanish vihuela de mano (a plucked
instrument) during the later 15th century. During the
16th century the viol gained rapidly in popularity
throughout Europe, and was developed into a family of
different-sized instruments which could play polyphonic
pieces in consort. In England and on the Continent, a set
of viols became a fixture of the growing activity of domes-
tic music-making. The violin, on the other hand, devel-
oped its modern form out of the fiddle by the mid-16thmmuussiiccaall iinnssttrruummeennttss 3 32299Musical instrumentsA woodcut of a group of Renaissance musicians from the title page of an early 17th-century book. The
ensemble includes (left to right) an early violin, bass viol, virginal, lute, early trombone, and curtal (early bassoon); a group of
singers and a recorder player can be seen at the back.