Instruments During The Renaissance Period

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The Renaissance period was a time of both rediscovery of ancient times as well as new innovations. Some of the inventions included the clock, gunpowder, thw printing press, and the telescope. Due to the invention of the printing press, music became accessible to not only the aristocrats, but to the common man. Alongside the new innovations, there was a rise in musical instruments.
The instruments of the time were classified into two sections. There was the “bas” and “haut” or “low” and “high”. The instruments were divided not by range of pitch, but by volume. The bas instruments or soft instruments were used to play indoors and they were the harp, lute, psaltery, transvers flute, and recorder. The haut instruments or loud instruments were used …show more content…

Depeding on where the individual resided, the instrument had a different spelling. The word “sackbut” means to push and pull which refers to the use of a slide. It’s origin comes from the Latin root “Sambuca” which is where we developed the different spellings of sackbut. According to Galpin’s The Sackbut, It’s Evolution and History, Kastner suggests a French use of the word: “saccades bouter” which means to use a jerking motion which gives the impression of the use of a slide . As the time progressed the definition of the word became more precise. The French used the word “saqueboute” which was a combination of “saquier”, to pull, and “boter”, to push . This is important to know because it proves the existence of the instrument as well as where it was commonly …show more content…

The difficult part is to actually know where they were used. According to Herbert’s The Sackbut and Pre-Reformation English Church Music, trombonist (sackbuttists) were salaried members of the royal music establishment . Although in sheet music we do not see a part for the sackbut, a set instrumentation was not a common use. However, the English drew pictures of brass instruments giving the assumption that the sackbut was used during that time period. The English also show records of paying the musicians. Herbert demonstrates that the sackbuttists were paid musicians as

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