This is a list of medieval musical instruments used in European music during the Medieval period. It covers the period from before 1150 to 1400 A.D. There may be some overlap with Renaissance musical instruments; Renaissance music begins in the 15th century. The list mainly covers Western Europe. It may branch into Eastern Europe but won't focus on that region.
| Names and variations | Description | Ethnic connections, regions | Pictures | Pictures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adufe[1] | A frame drum brought to Iberia by Muslims and played mainly by women.[3] Used in the charamba in Portugal, a circle dance for couples. The adufe is a square or rectangular frame drum usually made of pine, over which is mounted a goat's skin. The size of the frame usually ranges from 12 to 22 inches on each side, and 1 to 2 inches thick. The skin is stitched on the sides, with the stitches covered by a coloured ribbon. In the interior small seeds, stones or bells are placed to make pleasing sounds. Illustrated examples are decorated, possibly with henna.[4] | Iberia Portugal Spain | |||
| Bells handbells | |||||
| Bumbulum (legendary) | |||||
| Clappers cliquettes | Clappers from the Carolingian Empire appear to have been disks or possibly chimes attached to sticks. Other versions were blocks of wood held in the palms. The palm-held blocks could make clicking and rattle noises like castanets. Other similar instruments worldwide include the Thai/Cambodian krap sepha, Indian/Nepali khartal, Uzbek/Tajik qairaq, or North African krakebs. | ||||
| Cymbals | |||||
| Jew's harp[5] | |||||
| Nakers | |||||
| Tabor Pipe and tabor | Early drums in Europe were "side drums", slung at the players side or worn over their shoulder.[6] These were tabors, double sided with snares of rope (possibly only on one side. The drums were either beaten with two sticks, or played as a pipe and tabor combination. Drum and fife association found in Basle in 1332.Larger drums come on the scene by the 1500s. A three-hole pipe or reed pipe paired with a snare drum, the musician playing both at once. A variation of this is the Tambourine de Bearn, in which a dulcimer or string drum replaces the snare drum. | ||||
| Tof | Tof was the Hebrew instrument which Miriam played, "most commonly translated" into English as timbrel[8] Near eastern origin, used by Gauls, Greeks, Romans (tympanum), Egyptians, Assyrians. [9] Jingles were probably originally separate from this instrument. Also related to Daff. | ||||
| Triangle |
| Names and variations | width=300 | Description | Ethnic connections, regions | Pictures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citole[10] [11] | |||||
| Clavichord | Clavichords were in existence in the "early years of the 15th century."[12] Word clavichord found in text from 1404. Earliest known image dates to 1425, in an altarpiece carving in Minden, Germany. | ||||
| Crwth rote Stråkharpa | British Isles, from where it traveled through the Shetland Islands and Norway to Sweden, ending up in Estonia and Finland. | ||||
| Dulcimer | A box zither; see psaltery. "Little is known of the dulcimer before the mid-15th century."[13] Earliest known depiction is on ivory carving for book cover, 12th century A.D.[14] | ||||
| Fiddle see also
Shikepshine | |||||
| Gittern | |||||
| Guitarra latina | One writer has summed up the guitarra latina, which is not well defined, saying "For musicians in Alfonso’s time it may have meant only 'a plucked stringed instrument: not the Muslim one.'"[15] | ||||
| Guitarra morisca[16] | |||||
| Medieval harp (Medieval form of the modern harp) | |||||
| Lute[17] | |||||
| Lyra | Fiddle, related to rebec | ||||
| Lyre | |||||
| Organistrum (large form of medieval hurdy-gurdy) | |||||
| Psaltery | |||||
| Rabel | Fiddle, probably variation of rebec. Survives today in Basque speaking areas; historically had leather soundboard; modern instruments may have wooden soundboard. The instrument traveled to the Spanish colonies in America, where it can be found today in Panama. | ||||
| Rebab Rabé morisco | Rebab is a word for various kinds of fiddle in the Muslim world. Spelling is loose, because Arabic does not write down vowels sounds. Rabab, rebab, rubab, ribab have all been used, and some of them are used for plucked instruments in Asia as well. | ||||
| Rebec[18] | |||||
| Rotte | |||||
| Vielle Vièle | |||||
| Vihuela Viola | In the Iberian Peninsula, small lutes are pictured, which have been considered as possible cytharas and citoles. In Portugal, the tradition remained into the modern era, the instruments called violas. They were vihuelas in Spain. Vihuela eventually became a large guitar-like instrument of the Renaissance. Violas remained small. The name viola has been reused for a variety of instruments including viola da gamba, viola (a modern fiddle). | ||||
| Vihuela de arco Viola de arco Vihuela de arco pequeña (small bowed vihuela) | The vihuela de arco may be a variant of the vielle. Spain had a variety of fiddles (which predate the violin) in the cathedral artwork and manuscript miniatures. | ||||
| Zither | |||||
| Names and variations | Description | Ethnic connections, regions | Pictures | Pictures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albogón[19] | Double-reed instrument or type of shawm, possibly adapted from Muslim al-buq horn. | ||||
| Alboka | Spanish hornpipe. The musician blowns into a horn cup, which channels his breath through one or more single reeds. Each reed is connected to pipe with fingerholes. Traditional instruments of shepherds. | ||||
| Bagpipes[20] | |||||
| Bladder pipe | |||||
| Bombard | Bagpipe of Brittany | ||||
| Buisine Anafil | Europeans used horns for trumpets until adapting the Muslim nafir. It was renamed the anafil in Spain and the buisine in France. Europeans developed the instrument further into the herald trumpet or clarion near the end of the medieval period. | ||||
| Clarion | Clarion today implies high, angelic, pealing notes. That sound was developed, however, as Europeans began to learn to shape and bend sheet-metal tubes. Earlier Europeans showed angels playing horns. Cornett would also come to hit clarion notes. | ||||
| Cornett Fingerhole trumpets | In the 1500s-1600s, cornetts were carved wooden fingerhole trumpets, played from the corner of the mouth. In the medieval period, wooden fingerhole trumpets (and fingerhole cowhorns) are indicated in art such as the Winchcombe Psalter. | ||||
| Crumhorn | Probably a Renaissance instrument, the sound mechanism is a bundle of reeds beneath the wooden cap. The musician blew through the cap. | ||||
| Flageolet | |||||
| Flute | |||||
| Gemshorn | A recorder made from horn.[21] Common to use ox horn after 1375 A.D. Originally made from chamois horn. In later music, the instrument made of ox horn fills the gap between the flageolet and the recorder. | German Gams or Gems (for chamois) | |||
| Horn Bockhorn or Bukkehorn Hunting horn Battle horn War horn | Trumpets made from cattle horns (or from other materials and shaped like cattle horns) and other animal horns such as goats (bukkehorn) or sheep (shofar). Carved ivory horns of this style were called oliphants. Words in English: cowhorn, bullhorn, oxhorn, steerhorn. Among peaceful uses of these horns was for farmers to call to their cattle herds to bring them in.[22] Could be drilled with as many as three or four fingerholes. Bockhorns have been found with fingerholes as far back as the iron age. | Norway/Sweden vallhorn, tuthorn, tjuthorn, björnhorn fingerhole version låthhorn, spelhorn, prillarhorn | |||
| Olifant | Hunting or war horns carved from ivory | ||||
| Medieval trumpet Iberian trumpet | |||||
| Organ | Organs invented in antiquity, but not common in Europe.[23] Under reigns of Pepin the short and Charlemagne, the organ was re-introduced to Europe, starting in about 757 A.D.Theophilus's organ in the 11th century A.D., used bellows activated by body weight.[24] That was refined to make all air from three bellows enter into a common channel. | ||||
| Portative Organ | |||||
| Recorder duct flute dudka-dvoychatka sopel | Recorders are fairly rare in medieval art, the pipe (for pipe and tabor) being more common. Possibly began main start in European music in Northern Italy in the 14th century, and was established at the beginning of the 16th century.[25] It is difficult to tell from art if a recorder is presented (with a thumb hole) or a "some kind of folk pipe (without the thumb hole)."In comparison, reed pipes had a very limited range of notes (having only 3-4 holes and being played with one hand). Recorders and pipes with the holes requiring two hands to play had a broader range of notes. Another detail difficult to see is the mechanism of sound; recorders are flutes in which the sound is produced by a fipple. Reed pipes such as aulos used reed bundles like a shawm to produce notes, or single reeds like the zummara. Three and four hole pipes have been excavated in Novgorod, dating to the 11th and 15th centuries A.D. The timeline is not clear for the development into flutes with more holes. It isn't certain whether pipes with 3-4 holes were played alone, with a timbrel or tabor, or in pairs. Double flutes in Eastern Europe date back to the 12th-13th centuries.[26] Used in Russia, Belarus, western Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia. | ||||
| Reed pipes
Zummara | Europeans made pipes out of reeds, splitting a reed to make a single reed. A single 3-hole reed pipe could be used for the pipe and tabor. The Launeddas was a more elaborate reed pipe, with multiple pipes; each might have its own reed or one reed might sound multiple pipes. These are more common in medieval art than the recorder (which has more holes and requires both hands to play). Reed pipe traditions around the world include Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. | ||||
| Sackbut[27] | Renaissance instrument, ancestor of the trombone. Medieval variant was clarion | ||||
| Shawm[28] piccolo oboe or musette oboe | Double-reed instruments. The reed bundle is inserted through a disk (used for breath control, for uninterrupted sound, playing while the musician breathes.)In France, musettes were small oboes until the 16th century, when they became bagpipes.[29] The musette was a small keyless double-reed chalumeau, with a visibly conical bore and a pear-shaped bell. | ||||
| Willow flute Seljefløyte Sälgflöjt Švilpynė Telenka (Ukrainian Тилинка) Pitkähuilu telincă (Romanian) Kalyuka | These instruments are commonly called willow whistles because they use the bark of a willow tree (the tube created when the center is pulled from inside the bark) to make a whistle. The Russian kalyuka also makes a tube for a whistle, often out of thistle. The two instruments are played the same way, by varying the force of the air blown into the mouthpiece, with the end of the tube being covered by the finger or left open. | Norway Sweden Finland Lithuania Russia Ukraine | |||
| Shepherd's horn Näverlur Pastusheskiy rog (Пастушеский рог) kugikly (кугиклы) dudki (дудки) manki (манки) | Horns constructed of strips of birchbark or alder bark rolled into tubes, or into cups to fit onto the end of flutes or reedpipes. Also fingerhole horn carved of wood. A mouthpiece is inserted; they may have reed tongues (making them shawms or obes) a trumpet mouthpiece, or a tip to make them into flutes. Holes may be cut into the bark tube as well.[30] [31] [32] Instruments may also be built with a mouthpiece resembling a cup or funnel, in which the player uses his lips to create the sound.[33] | Sweden, Russia, Karelia, Belarus, Ukraine, former Yugoslavia | |||
| Clay trumpet | Horns of clay | ||||
| Tabor Pipe | A two or three-hole pipe of wood or reed, played with the tabor; the combination is called pipe and tabor. Three-hole flutes have two front finger holes and one back thumb hole. | ||||
| Wooden trumpet Bemastocc | A yew-wood trumpet was found in the Erne River.[34] It was attributed to the "early Christian Period...8th-10th century." Has resemblance to the trumpets in the Vespasian Psalter.[35] Trumpet was carved in two halves and bound together with strips of bronze, with a bronze mouthpiece. | Bemastocc (Old-English bem trumpet + stocc wood) |